THE timing appeared to be orchestrated.
Exactly a month after 16-year-old Christine Lee Silawan’s mutilated body was discovered in a secluded spot in Barangay Bankal, Lapu-Lapu City, news broke out that her killer had finally been found.
Renato Llenes, 43, decided to come clean because his conscience bothered him. At least, that was what he told police when he was interrogated following his arrest during a buy-bust last Tuesday, April 9.
“Sa tantong istorya-istorya, ni-confess man kuno na siya sa pagpatay ni Christine,” said Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza, quoting City Police Chief Limuel Obon.
PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde didn’t seem to have any problem with the confession even though some things didn’t add up.
The police official said Llenes was assisted by two lawyers when he made the extra-judicial confession. Police also recovered the scissors he allegedly used to stab her more than 30 times and skin her face as well as his clothes and shoes that were full of blood.
These factors convinced Albayalde that Llenes was telling the truth.
Never mind that the self-confessed killer’s neighbors, his mother and his daughter, all of whom have known him longer than the police, couldn’t believe he did it.
Yes, Llenes boasted about killing the girl right from the start, but they ignored him.
Yes, he went into hiding when police started looking for suspects in Silawan’s brutal killing but that was because he was afraid to be arrested again for a child abuse case filed against him in 2015 and for which he went to prison for eight months, or so his mother said.
And Albayalde seemed to have forgotten about the security footage the National Bureau of Investigation 7 presented when they arrested Silawan’s then 17-year-old ex-boyfriend three weeks ago supposedly showing the pair together on the night she disappeared.
Or the DNA test result showing the bloodstain on the shoe of the ex-boyfriend allegedly matching the specimen taken from Silawan’s parents.
These might explain why Silawan’s family seemed confused about the latest development.
Although grateful to authorities for not giving up on finding the culprit, her aunt hoped they had finally found the right guy. That way, they could finally put the matter to rest and move on with their lives.