THE 15-year-old grade eight pupil in Argao, Cebu who was allegedly killed by three men was not raped by three men, police said.
It was also found that the three suspects are relatives of the victim.
SPO4 Esteban Albuera, the town police deputy chief, said the doctor who conducted the autopsy found no injuries in the victim’s genitals.
Dr. Rhine Mamac, the municipal health unit officer, in his autopsy report, said the immediate cause of death of Jezreel Higida (not Jezriel as earlier reported) is severe head injury.
The autopsy was conducted in a funeral home in Carcar City last Monday night.
Suspects Raymond Mansueto Albuera, 22; Rowin “Roy” Saraosos, 41; and Elmo Judilla Relatibo, 24, will be charged with murder today before the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor in Cebu City.
Unconscious
Raymond and Saraosos told investigators that Relatibo was the one who hit the girl with a rock several times. Saraosos said Raymond dragged the girl after she fell unconscious.
Relatibo admitted to the police he committed the crime with the help of Raymond and Saraosos.
SPO4 Albuera, in a phone interview, said it was possible that the suspects were trying to rape the victim, who was still in her school uniform (white upper shirt and dark blue skirt) when she was found dead by her relatives and neighbors in Barangay Bulasa last Monday morning.
The victim could have resisted by scratching her attackers’ faces, which led the suspects to kill her, SPO4 Albuera said.
A person, who was about to leash a carabao, saw the suspects dragging the lifeless body of the victim.
Before the incident, the three suspects were seen drinking liquor with a friend in a hut last Sunday.
SPO4 Albuera said Saraosos was recently granted temporary liberty after posting bail for qualified theft. The two other suspects are out-of-school youth.
Murder, a heinous crime, is non-bailable and a guilty person faces life imprisonment.
School principal Cresente Piñol said the girl’s body was found in a grassy portion far from the road between her home and that of her adviser Glen Pepito.
“Paryente na sila sa mga lola (They are relatives on the grandmother’s side),” the principal of Bulasa National High School said.
Piñol said that when the victim, a consistent honor student who never missed class, was not around that morning, she asked the girl’s classmates to check the victim in her house two kilometers from the school.
There, the victim’s father told the classmates that her daughter left the house alone early that morning.
This alarmed Pepito as he did not see the victim pass by his house, or walk with him to school, which she always did.
“Usually naa na siyay kauban, kadto ra ang wa siyay kauban (She usually had companions),” said Piñol, adding that the girl’s younger brother was still eating breakfast that time.
Piñol described the barangay road usually used by the victim in going to school as having areas that are uninhabited, with shrubs on both sides.
Diana Marie Higida, the victim’s relative and staff of Cebu Gov Hilario Davide III, said the victim, a third of four siblings, would have turned 16 on April 1.
Davide said the Provincial Welfare and Development Office (PWDO) is preparing assistance to the family.
Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said she directed Hedda Largo, of the Provincial Women Commission (PWC), to check the status of the case and gather evidence and affidavits.
Magpale said PWC’s technical working group is ready to assist the victim’s family.
The victim’s father is working in a drilling company in Barangay Basak, Cebu city.