A MURDER case has already been filed by the Naga City police at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, against the suspect in the murder of Joel Jude Suson Unchuan, alias Coach Jay.
But the police will not give up on looking into the possibility that there are other people involved in the crime aside from 21-year-old Sanny Lumangca.
Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO 7), said that Lumangca, who is from Clarin, Misamis Occidental, first confessed in an extrajudicial confession that he killed the victim by strangling his neck with a belt when they had not agreed on the terms of payment for sex.
The 46-year-old vocal coach from Queens Road, Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City was found dead at dawn of December 30, 2023 in Sitio Palanas, Barangay Inayagan, Naga City, southern Cebu.
On January 12, Lumangca reportedly turned himself in at the Naga City Police Station.
Pelare said the case is still not closed since the closed circuit television (CCTV) camera showed two persons dropping off the victim’s sports utility vehicle (SUV) near a carwash in the northern town of Liloan.
Based on Lumangca’s confession, the murder took place inside the vehicle late night of December 29 in Mandaue City.
This was confirmed by a CCTV camera footage that showed the SUV stop for a few minutes in the city with its hazard lights on.
The suspect then said he brought the body to the City of Naga where he dumped it by the roadside in the mountain part of Barangay Inayagan.
He then drove to Liloan town where carwash employees saw him leave the SUV along the national highway.
Lumangca said that last December 29 was the second time he and the victim got together.
“We take into account the extrajudicial confession but the police will not solely rely its findings on the extrajudicial confession, so ang among buhaton karon among i-file ang kaso (what we are going to do now is file a case) against the suspect but the investigation is still open to determine if naa pabay laing (if there are other individuals) involved,” Pelare said.
The police are now trying to find out how they got to Naga City from Mandaue City when the suspect had previously acknowledged that he does not know how to drive a car. (AYB, TPT)