THE police have identified five men who may have perpetrated the murder of a 14-year-old girl in the mountain village of Guimbawian, Pinamungajan, Cebu.
This brings the number of the Pinamungajan Police Station’s persons of interest in this case to six.
P/Maj. Felicisimo Aranas Jr., the town police chief, said the five men are willing to submit their deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) samples at the Philippine National Police-Crime Laboratory 7.
Medico-legal officer Benjamin Lara had said that he was able to retrieve a specimen from the body of the victim, Justine Andayop.
The victim was buried on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019.
Aranas’s personnel had also recovered a shirt with traces of suspected bloodstains. The shirt was reportedly owned by Andayop’s neighbor, who left his house in Sitio Caimito, Guimbawian after the girl’s body was found on Monday afternoon, Oct. 14. The shirt will be subjected to a DNA test.
The man, the first person of interest, left Caimito but was later found by the police in Cebu City. His cell phone was also submitted to the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Office 7, but the technicians reportedly have a hard time examining the device as it has a password.
In an interview, Aranas said the five men showed suspicious actions after the discovery of Andayop’s body in a bushy area in Caimito.
Aranas said if one of the DNA samples matches the specimen taken from the victim’s body, the person of interest could be the culprit.
Andayop succumbed to wounds in the neck and other parts of her body. She could also have been raped before she was murdered, police said.
Police are asking residents who saw the crime to execute an affidavit. (from AYB of Superbalita Cebu/KAL)