MANILA, Philippines?Could there be a 58th victim in the Maguindanao massacre?

Foreign forensic experts assisting the Commission on Human Rights in its investigation of the country's worst election-related killings raised this possibility on Wednesday as four families are still looking for relatives although only three bodies remain unidentified.

Moreover, Dr. Jose Pablo Baraybar, a Peruvian forensic expert, said that the official report on the number of victims was based on the number of bodies found at the crime scene.

?So far, what you have been reporting is there are 57 victims. But the problem is, the universal victims in this event, the number of people killed in this event, is given by the number of bodies recovered, not by the number of victims reported missing or killed. How many people actually died in that event? For the time being, we do not know exactly,? Baraybar said in a press briefing.

A fact-finding mission spearheaded by the CHR and CenterLaw, a group of public-interest lawyers, stayed in Maguindanao for a week to investigate the massacre, described as the worst election-related violence in the country's history.

Baraybar and his colleague, Chris Cobb-Smith, said the dentures of slain journalist Robert Momay were been found at the crime scene but these did not match any of the three unidentified bodies.

Initially, the fact-finding team considered Momay as the 58th victim but did not find any more bodies after a thorough search of the mass graves.

Baraybar said it was possible that Momay's body was misidentified and turned over to the wrong family. He said it would be unlikely that any of the families would make up claims of a missing relative.

?In other words, we still have a 58th victim missing without a name,? Baraybar said.

The expert added that one of the vehicles recovered from one of the mass burial pits, a Tamaraw FX, showed ?perforations? at the back rest of both the passengers? and rear right seats caused by a shotgun.

Only the vehicle's driver, Jephon Cadagdagon, a businessman from General Santos City, has been identified.

?We raise the question as to whether he was travelling indeed alone or may have been taking passengers on his way through the area,? Baraybar said.

The forensic experts also lamented that the crime scene had been contaminated, destroying possible vital evidence.

Baraybar said the fact-finding mission received reports that the first responding team recovered only the bodies of the wife and other relatives of Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Buluan and left the other victims behind.

?The process of examination of the mortal remains was not centralized; it was spread through a number of funeral homes and undertaken by PNP and NBI teams. A preliminary review of autopsy reports from each of these teams show in some cases considerable differences in detail and description of injuries related to the cause and manner of death,? Baraybar said.

Baraybar expressed shock at the ?veil of impunity that surrounds this case.?

He wondered how it was possible for a crime of this magnitude to take place near a major highway and a military detachment.

?There's a combination of trying to hide [the crime] with the graves and trying to state that 'I did that',? Baraybar said.

CHR Chairwoman Leila de Lima and CenterLaw chairperson, lawyer Harry Roque, said that given the number of victims, a charge of ?crime against humanity? may be filed at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Roque said CenterLaw was ?pondering on bringing the case to the ICC.?

One of its advantages is the assurance of the neutrality and safety of the judges that would hear the case, Roque said.

Roque noted that fear still hounds the families of the slain journalists. He said that of the at least 30 slain journalists, only 13 families are pursuing cases against the Ampatuans, 10 of whom are being represented by lawyers from his group.