Woman set on fire identified

The woman who was burned alive and left for dead in Baclaran, Parañaque City last week has finally been identified by her family.

However, the victim’s family requested that her name be withheld for fear of retaliation from her assailants, said case investigator SPO1 Rodolfo Balacuay of the Parañaque City police Criminal Investigation Division (CID).

The victim’s father identified her through a scar on her thigh. Her remains had been at the Mesina Funeral Homes in Las Piñas for at least a week before family members located her.

The victim was a 34-year-old seawoman who had been suffering from depression since last year, Balacuay quoted family members. She was last seen alive in their house in Bacoor, Cavite in the wee hours of June 3.

Family members told investigators that she may have sneaked out of the house and wandered off.

An MMDA traffic enforcer found the victim at around noon on June 3 naked and barely alive along the seawall of Roxas Boulevard near the Airport Road in front of BM Tower.

She was taken to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) by barangay tanods but was pronounced dead on arrival. The victim was severely burned from her head to her torso.

Recovered from the crime scene were a black purse containing P226, a slipper, and the cover of a container that smelled of flammable liquid.

Investigators believe that she was burned at the site with her clothes on but her family shared Parañaque City police chief Superintendent Ruben Catabona’s theory that she was burned somewhere else and dumped along Roxas Boulevard to mislead authorities.

Investigators noticed that the victim’s burned clothes were nearly stuck to the ground and that the plants around her were also burned. The area smelled of burned flesh as well.

Police found no witnesses to the crime despite Roxas Boulevard being a busy thoroughfare. Even the vagrants who sleep along the highway did not notice anything suspicious, Balacuay said.

Balacuay added that investigators are still establishing the motive for the crime and are awaiting autopsy reports to see if she was also raped before being killed.

The Parañaque City police is also coordinating with the Bacoor PNP in the investigation of the case, Balacuay said.

Catabona said that people who are high on drugs, extremely jealous, or insane are capable of committing such a gruesome crime. – Nikko Dizon