Dead woman in box stowaway from Davao

CEBU, Philippines — Police have identified the woman whose dead body was found stuffed in a box left along the road in South Verdana Subdivision, Barangay Tisay, Cebu City Monday afternoon.

She was 19-year-old Rhea Mae Batoy Tocmo, from Mabini, Davao de Oro, and temporarily staying with relatives in Mandaue City. Her identity was confirmed by her relatives and friends, said Police Major Angelito Valleser, chief of police station 10.

Valleser said the victim arrived in Cebu on June 11 after allegedly stowing away from her parents. Initial information the police gathered from the relatives, the victim was scolded by her parents prompting her to come to Cebu to look for a job.

Police investigators are now pursuing some leads into the crime but refused to give details so as not to preempt their investigation. Police Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of Police Regional Office -7 director B/Gen. Anthony Aberin, said they have started backtracking CCTV footages in the area where the victim was last seen alive.

The police are also reviewing the identity of the last persons who visited the victim in her boarding house in Barangay Looc, Mandaue City. Tocmo’s dead body was found bound with wire, wrapped with white blanket, and stuffed in a box. It was left by unknown persons along the road in Katipunan Extension, Barangay Tisa, Cebu City Monday morning.

Police believed that the victim may have been killed in another place and was only dumped in Barangay Tisa. Police investigations are still on going. — Louie Edward A. Maligon (FREEMAN)