Missing 18-year-old girl found dead in Tagum City, Davao del Norte

Health workers move the body of Nike Andyriana Kassim, 18, who was found dead on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, in a grassy area in Purok Pine Tree, Barangay Magugpo North, Tagum City in Davao del Norte. (Photo by Ruel Dagsangan)

TAGUM CITY — An 18-year-old Grade 12 student who was reported missing on Saturday, April 22, was found dead in a grassy area here on Tuesday.

The body of Nike Andyriana Kasim was discovered in Purok Pine Tree, Barangay Magugpo North at around 2 p.m., police said.

According to the victim’s relatives, Kasim was last seen outside a convenience store along Mirafuentes Street in the same village past 11 p.m. on Saturday.

The victim was a stay-in worker at a spa salon in Seminary Drive, Suaybaguio, in nearby Magugpo Poblacion village. She was a student at La Filipina National High School.

She was seen on the closed-circuit television footage inside the convenience store wearing green scrub suit pants and a green puff top off-shoulder dress.

Kasim’s death came as police have yet to identify the suspect in the murder of Grade 1 pupil Monalisa Pagharion whose decomposing body was found in a grassy area in Barangay Apokon last Thursday, April 20, four days after she failed to come back home after taking her younger sister to a Kindergarten class at Apokon Elementary School.

Acting Tagum City police chief Lt. Col. Edgardo Bernardo said investigators are looking into a “person of interest” behind Pagharion’s murder.

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