A 22-year-old attendant of an illegal swertres outlet was found dead in a grassy area in Barangay Lanas, City of Naga yesterday morning.
Josephine Cañabanao was naked from the waist down when police found her in Sitio Naypa, Barangay Lanas at 8 a.m. yesterday.
Police are determining if Cañabano was raped before she was killed.
Identified as suspect is Cañabanao’s boyfriend.
A 49-year-old widow, Victor Lasponia, was walking with her livestock at around 6 a.m. when she found a wallet and other personal belongings littered on the ground.
Then she found Cañabano’s body. Her face was bloody. Cañabano’s neck was bound with a towelette.
Lasponia rushed to the barangay hall to inform officials about it.
Police arrived at the area and Cañabano’s body was brought to St. Francis Funeral Homes in N. Bacalso Ave. for an autopsy.
PO3 Gilmer Noval, one of the investigators, said Cañabano was last seen with a male companion on a motorcycle.
Picked up
Noval said the victim was reportedly picked up near her home in Barangay Tunghaan by the suspect, identified as a boyfriend of Cañabano.
But he said that the victim was not abducted but went with the suspect willingly.
Noval said Cañabano had just filed her resignation from work when she went with her boyfriend.
Cañabano had been working in an illegal swertres outlet in Barangay Camp 4 in Talisay City for months until she resigned.
But Cañabano’s mother, Felicisima, said her daughter’s death may have been related to her job.
Felicisima said her daughter resigned from her job last Saturday after her relationship with the owner of the illegal swertres business turned sour.
“Niingon to ang iyang amo nga manubag kuno ang akong anak kung dili na siya mobalik sa trabaho. Ngano man manubag man ang akong anak nga wala man siya nakadispalko og kwarta (Her employer said my daughter will be held reliable if she resigned. Reliable for what when she has done anything?),” Felicisima said.
She vowed to pursue justice for her daughter.
Cañabano is survived by her two sons, ages five and three.