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Thursday, April 19, 2007
Crime probe starts into US Peace Corps volunteer’s death
By Jane Cadalig
BAGUIO CITY -- A criminal investigation was launched after soldiers found a body Wednesday believed to be of a missing American Peace Corps volunteer in a shallow grave in a northern mountain town where she disappeared while hiking.
Maj. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang said there was no immediate forensic confirmation that the body belonged to Julia Campbell, 40, from Fairfax, Virginia.
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The remains were found buried in a dry creek, with a foot sticking out, in the vicinity of Battad village, where she was last seen, Police Regional Director Raul Gonzales said.
"There is a probability that there was foul play," Gonzales said, adding police will now treat it as "a crime incident."
US Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop, however, said American authorities could not immediately confirm it was Campbell's body, saying embassy and Peace Corps officers are helping police recover and identify the remains.
PNP forensic experts and US officials are expected to arrive on the area where Campbell’s body was found. Her body was airlifted to Manila where an autopsy will be conducted.
On Tuesday, Philippine national police chief Oscar Calderon ruled out the involvement of communist rebels in Campbell's disappearance "because the area has been cleared of insurgents."
Police earlier speculated that Campbell may have fallen off a cliff. She went missing April 8 in the village outside Banaue town in Ifugao province north of Manila, where she had planned to view the famed mountainside rice terraces.
Ifugao Provincial Police Chief Pedro Ganir said the area where the body was found was way out of the hiking trail so accident could not be a cause of her death. "This is no longer an accident," he said.
Ganir said there are traces that the body was purposely buried to avoid detection. “I can say it is homicide,” the police chief said in a television interview,
Police is also not discounting robbery and rape as among the motives. However these theories have yet to be confirmed by the Scene of the Crime Operatives and through the conduct of an autopsy, said Cordillera Police Information Officer Joseph Adnol.
Ganir said a stray dog had dug out one foot when soldiers discovered the body, which was placed in the creek and covered with dirt.
A pair of reading glasses was found near a trail about 50 meters (165 feet) from the body, with one of the lenses laying nearby. Police also recovered a sandal they believed belonged to the woman.
Campbell, wearing blue denim jeans, black shirt and a shawl, was last seen buying soda from a store in Batad on the day she was reported missing.
She was only wearing sandals and had bought a bus ticket to return to Manila by April 9, indicating she did not plan to extend her stay or make a long hike to a spot to look at the rice terraces, he said.
US Peace Corps Director Ronald Tschetter flew by helicopter over Battad on Tuesday and later drove to the area, about 260 kilometers (160 miles) north of Manila, to monitor the massive search for Campbell.
"I can understand why people would want to hike in the area," he told journalists at the US Embassy in Manila before hearing of the body's discovery.
"It's gorgeous ... but it's rugged, and the paths, the hiking trails in some places, are very narrow," he said, adding that the terrain was "a bit treacherous, with very steep gorges covered with heavy fauna."
He also met with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to thank her for the government's assistance in searching for Campbell.
Tschetter said more than 80 people - including police commandos, soldiers, and volunteers - were involved in the search, backed by four helicopters and four tracking dogs started scouring the Ifugao mountains since last Saturday.
Campbell is one of 137 Peace Corps volunteers currently in the Philippines.
She had been teaching English at the Divine Word College in Albay province's Legazpi city, southeast of Manila, since October 2006.
She previously taught at a public school in Donsol in nearby Sorsogon province, said Nora Gallano, assistant dean of Divine Word's College of Liberal Arts.(with reports from VR/JMR/ with UST interns Hannah Oliva and Bernadith Abonita/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (April 19, 2007 issue)
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