Saturday, October 12, 2002
Body of boy found off Tabuelan waters
By Minerva B. Gerodias/Mia E. Abellana
AN UNIDENTIFIED boy was fished out of the waters off Tabuelan, Cebu Thursday night.Police had failed to identify the boy’s gender as the body was in a decomposing state and his sex organ was missing.
But PNP Crime Laboratory Chief Nestor Sator, who conducted the autopsy, said the body is that of a male because it has no uterus. The doctor also said the victim is about 13 years old.
He said the boy died of drowning. There was no sign of foul play as there were no penetrating wounds or signs of bleeding.
Description
The body, about 4’2” tall, was believed to have been floating for three days already.
No one has claimed the body yet.
The boy’s sex organ, as well as his eyes, nose and other parts of the body, could have been eaten by fishes in the area.
The body, which had rosary beads around the neck, was found floating by fishermen in Barangay Putap, Tuburan around 2 p.m.
They reported the matter to the police and with the help of the Bantay Dagat and Coast Guard, searched the area, but the body was no longer there.
They kept on searching and found the body floating in the boundaries of Barangays Tigbawan and Marabella in Tabuelan town.
Autopsy
The body was brought to the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes on Junquera St., Cebu City for an autopsy.
Sator found foreign bodies like sand in his trachea, the air passage, showing the boy drowned.
“This means he was still alive when he was in the sea because if he was already dead when he was thrown into the water, there shouldn’t have been foreign bodies in the trachea since you no longer breathe air,” Sator explained in Cebuano. |
