|
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Autopsy result: Campbell died of head injuries
MANILA -- Blows to the head killed a US Peace Corps volunteer who was found buried in a shallow grave in a Northern Luzon mountain village, officials said yesterday after an autopsy.
Julia Campbell, 40, of Fairfax, Virginia, suffered “multiple blunt traumatic injuries of the head,” Police Chief Inspector Mamerto Bernabe, a pathologist who headed the autopsy said.
Pinoy Votes: Sun.Star Election 2007 Coverage
Bernabe, assistant chief of the medico-legal division of the national police crime laboratory, said Campbell sustained “plenty” of injuries on the face and the top of the head.
“This only means that her death wasn’t an accident,” crime laboratory head, Chief Supt. Arturo Cacdac said.
He said Campbell’s arms also were injured, indicating that she tried to block the blows.
Campbell’s remains were immediately turned over to the Peace Corps after the six-hour autopsy, which was observed by US forensic experts, he said.
“During the debriefing, the US experts concurred with our own experts,” he said.
Cacdac said a full report will be submitted to National Police Chief Oscar Calderon.
It may take up to three weeks to obtain results from DNA test on samples taken from “critical” parts of Campbell’s body, including her fingernails, he added.
Campbell’s body was found buried in a shallow grave last Wednesday, 10 days after she went missing during a solo hike in the village of Battad in Banaue township to see the area’s famed mountainside rice terraces.
Regional Police Director Raul Gonzales, said the autopsy showed whoever was responsible “made sure she was dead.”
Ifugao Police Provincial Director Pedro Ganir said police recovered a bloodstained pole used to pound rice made of hard wood near the residence of a suspect, who has gone into hiding.
The suspect has been identified as the husband of the woman who sold Campbell a softdrink before she proceeded with her hike in the remote area — a World Heritage site — in Ifugao Province.
The woman, however, told GMA television her husband was not in Battad when Campbell disappeared.
Ganir earlier said investigators were looking into “robbery with homicide or rape with homicide” — common motives when women disappear in the country.
Stacy Mactaggert, a US embassy spokeswoman, said Campbell’s remains would be brought home to her family in the United States as soon as legal requirements, such as a death certificate, are completed. (AP)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (April 22, 2007 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
