POLICE have questioned a boy and a girl whom they consider as persons of interest (POIs) in the brutal killing of 15-year-old Jeanelle Maekylla Royos, whose naked dead body was discovered in Purok Magenta, Barangay Gairan, Bogo City in northern Cebu on Sunday afternoon, November 13, 2022.
Lieutenant Colonel Florendo Fajardo said the two POIs’ names came up during their investigation.
He said they found a bloodied pillow in the boy’s house and took it as evidence.
He said they sent the pillow to the Regional Forensic Unit Central Visayas for DNA testing so the result could be compared to the sample taken from the victim.
“The girl claimed that the blood on the pillow was hers because she just had her period. We asked if it was okay to have it tested for DNA and she said it was,” he said in Cebuano.
Fajardo said they also found fresh scratches on the boy’s chest, but the latter claimed that these were caused by the welding rod at his place of work in Minglanilla.
Fajardo said their investigators are double checking the claims of the POIs to see if they are telling the truth because their statements do not match.
In the course of their investigation, police also found the girl trying to distance herself from the boy when she realized the boy might be investigated, which was why she denied they were together before Royos was killed.
According to Fajardo, the victim’s mother first called the girl to tell her that her daughter was missing, but the girl didn’t seem to care and reportedly went back to sleep.
Suspicions arose when one of the persons caught on surveillance cameras matched the girl’s description.
Fajardo refused to divulge the motive of the crime pending their investigation, but he said things were getting clearer.
He said that once they have enough evidence that point to the two POIs, they will file a case against them.
He said the boy and the girl are the victim’s neighbors. (AYB/PJB)