By: Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – The 10-year-old girl who was found dead in a sugarcane field in Murcia, Negros Occidental last October 30 was raped.
This was confirmed yesterday by Police Major Robert Dejucos, town police chief, citing the autopsy results.
Dejucos said he received a copy of the results on Nov 1.
He said the victim, who was a Grade 5 pupil, had lacerations on her hymen, and died of broken ribs, damaged liver, and blunt trauma on her chest and abdomen.
“She was probably hit by a hard object,” Dejucos said.
Last Wednesday, the victim was asked by her sister to buy frozen food for dinner. She was later found by her family half naked, almost five hours after she was reported missing. Her underwear and pair of shorts were found beside her.
Although police already have a person of interest, Dejucos said they cannot yet establish if the victim was killed somewhere and was left at the sugarcane field by the unidentified suspects.
The person of interest is the victim’s neighbor who sometimes sleeps at their house, Dejucos said.
The man was subjected for DNA examination to determine if he was indeed involved in the killing of the child, he added.
Dejucos said that they invited the man at the police station to investigate him after he was reported to have a close relationship with the victim.
“He was reportedly admiring the victim,” Dejucos said.
But the man denied the allegations against him, though he is willing to cooperate with the police for investigation.
Dejucos said they are having difficulty to find the real perpetrators because they have no witnesses.
“There are still missing links and we’re still trying to find other means to establish the motive,” he added.
He said that DNA results will be released in a month, but they will continue to do profiling of other possible persons of interest to find the real culprit.