Suspect in Batangas girl’s slay found riddled with bullets

SAN PEDRO CITY –– The man arrested for the killing of an 11-year-old child in Bauan town in Batangas province was found dead with multiple bullet wounds, just two days after he was released from police custody.

Mark Alvin Sajer, 27, was found dead around 6:30 a.m. on Friday on an off-road trail in Barangay Manghinao 1, about a kilometer away from Barangay San Roque where he lived.

He suffered multiple bullet wounds.

Batangas police chief Col. Edwin Quilates, in a text message, said Sajer’s killing was still under investigation.

Quilates said the provincial prosecutor on Wednesday ordered Sajer freed and referred the murder case filed by the police “for further investigation” for lack of evidence.

Bauan police arrested Sajer on Dec. 28 for the killing of a girl, whose body was found on Dec. 24 in a nearby creek in Barangay San Roque.

The police suspected the child, whose stepfather worked as a construction laborer, and whose mother lived in another province, was also raped after they recovered her underwear in the same area days after the body was found.

The police arrested Sajer based on the accounts of four witnesses, who said they saw him with the child shortly before she went missing./lzb