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LIGAO CITY, Albay, Philippines — After 12 years, the two suspects in the rape and killing of a college student in Albay province, which had once been considered a “cold case,” were finally arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 11, police said.
In a report, Lt. Col. Joseph Marribay, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Albay, identified the suspects as Omar Almonacid and Stephen Almonacid, brothers who are both residents of Daraga town in Albay.
They were arrested in their house in Barangay Bascaran at around 4:50 p.m.
The suspects were arrested by CIDG detectives and some officers from the Daraga Municipal Police Station.
The law enforcers had an arrest warrant for rape with homicide issued on Jan. 11, 2023, by Judge Joseph Raymond Destajo Borja of Regional Trial Court Branch 3 in Legazpi City, Marribay told Inquirer in a message.
On Nov. 1, 2011, Laesybil “Apple” Lim Almonacid, a 19-year-old third-year accountancy student at Bicol University, went missing.
She was found on the following day, Nov. 2, at around 5:30 a.m., dead and lying at the grassy portion several meters away from their house in Sitio San Roque in Barangay Bascaran.
Due to the lack of witnesses and evidence, the incident became a cold case until the task of investigating it was turned over by the Daraga police to the CIDG in September 2020.
“So CIDG Albay took their best effort to investigate until we found a credible witness which led to the filing of cases in March 2022,” Marribay said. “With the arrest of the suspects, justice has been served and it is considered case closed.”