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Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Teacher robbed, mauled to death
By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan
* The victim died biting her lower lip
* No records concerning Albert de la Cruz or Junric Gonzalez, the alleged textmates/suspects of the victim, exist as residents of Murcia
THE public school teacher from Binalbagan town who was found dead at a room of an apartment hotel in Locsin St., Bacolod City last Sunday afternoon was robbed and mauled to death by her male companion.
This was the theory of the parents of Michelle Montiola, citing the result of the medico-legal examination conducted on their daughter.
Lourdes, the mother of Michelle, told Sun.Star Bacolod her daughter's Samsung cellular phone with camera, cash amounting to more than P3,000, necklace, and a PRC (Professional Regulations Commission) identification card were missing.
At the Bacolod City Health Office Monday afternoon, where the autopsy was conducted, the grieving mother said Michelle brought with her the money intended for the costumes of Grade II pupils at Amontay Elementary School for the school's Elementary Day on Friday, March 18.
Dr. Eli Cong, city medico-legal officer, said Monday that based on his autopsy findings, Michelle died of myocardial infraction or heart attack.
Cong explained the victim's ordeal from a male perpetrator was aggravated by too much stress, pain and hypertension.
"She was mauled," declared the medico-legal officer.
Michelle's eye blackened and she suffered hematoma on the ears, said Cong.
The victim died biting her lower lip, he added.
"It is possible that somebody mauled her before she died. Suffocation as cause of death is only one of the probabilities," Cong said.
As to the possibility that she was raped or molested, Cong said this cannot be determined yet because Michelle's body is decomposing, making the examination unviable.
Cong said it would be difficult to conduct a test on the victim's private parts.
Cong explained the blood found oozing from her nose came from her lungs as part of the decomposition process of her body.
Lying on her stomach
Rodrigo Parcon, a room boy who was supposed to change the beddings of Room 201, found Michelle's body.
Parcon told police probers that Michelle was wearing only a black sleeveless blouse and panty when he found her at 12:45 p.m. Sunday.
Also recovered from the room were blue denim pants, a pair of white sandals, white bag, two Ceres bus tickets and other personal things.
Arvin Malavar, front desk officer of the apartelle, said Michelle checked in about 1 p.m. Saturday, an hour after a certain Albert de la Cruz checked in at Room 201.
Malavar said Michelle and De la Cruz were seen together at the lobby area before going to their rented room.
It was only at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, when De la Cruz checked out, without Michelle.
Fiesta
Aside from going to a fiesta and a family reunion in Barangay Caridad, Bago City, Michelle, according to her mother, had mentioned about going to Bacolod to take the cash solicitation from her text mate, a certain Junric Gonzales.
Mrs. Montinola disclosed Gonzalez was her daughter's chatmate-turned-text mate.
Gonzalez, the mother added, was the former chatmate of Michelle's cousin Nikka Montinola, a high school student in Binalbagan.
Later, however, Gonzales asked Nikka to recommend him to a much older girl like his age, between 20 and 22 years.
This was when Nikka referred Michelle to Gonzales.
After chatting for several times in the internet, the mother said, Michelle was invited by Gonzales to meet him at a mall in Bacolod.
Their first meeting, however, was not realized as Michelle got cold feet.
During their supposed second meeting, also at a mall in Bacolod, Michelle took a picture of the guy through her cellular phone.
"My husband saw the guy in the cellphone. He's tall and semi-bald," added the mother.
Later, she disclosed, Michelle told them that she asked for solicitation from the guy who claimed to have a vast mango plantation and poultry farm in Murcia town.
Forced
The mother said her daughter could have been killed when she refused to submit herself to the sexual demand of her male companion.
She described Michelle as "suplada."
But the mother said she can't accept, until now, that her daughter is dead.
Apple of the eye
Michelle was the "apple of the eye" of the Montinola family.
She finished her BS Elementary Education at the Binalbagan Catholic College.
It was only last January this year when she was accepted as regular teacher at the Amontay Elementary School in Barangay Amontay, one of the farthest and remotest barangays in Binalbagan.
Michelle, her mother said, used to walk several kilometers in going to school every Monday and in going back home every Friday.
Negative
Murcia Police Office chief Senior Inspector Simeon Gane, meanwhile, said the name Albert de la Cruz or Junric Gonzalez does not exist as a resident of Murcia.
Gane said they checked all the records, from the Commission on Elections to the Mayor's Office through the Licensing and Permits Division in Murcia, among others, but all these turned out negative.
Operatives of the Bacolod City Police Office-Intelligence and Investigation Branch and the Operations Branch, with augmentation from the Binalbagan Police Office and Murcia police stations, are now conducting 24-hour manhunt operations against the suspect.
Michelle's cadaver was brought by the Rolling Hills Memorial Chapel service vehicle in Barangay Progreso, Binalbagan where it will be buried.
(March 15, 2005 issue)
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