Missing Japanese national, mother found buried in Quezon

Quezon province. INQUIRER FILES

LUCENA CITY — The bodies of a missing Japanese national and her Filipina mother were found buried near a relative’s house in Tayabas City, Quezon province on Thursday, March 14.

In a report Friday, local policemen said they recovered the bodies of Lorry Litada, 54, and her Japanese daughter Mai Motegi, 26, at around 4:30 p.m. from a pit inside a subdivision in Barangay Isabang.

The freshly covered grave was only a meter away from the house of a relative of Litada, police said.

Litada and Motegi were both residents of Japan. The report did not provide information on when the victims arrived in the country or the purpose of their visit.

READ: Japanese national found dead in his bedroom in Liloan, Cebu

On March 9, an elder sister of Litada reported to the local police that the two had been missing since Feb. 21.

Investigators conducted an ocular inspection of the vicinity of a house, where the mother and daughter were reportedly last seen, which led to the recovery of the bodies.

Lieutenant Colonel Bonna Obmerga, Tayabas City police chief, tagged two relatives as “persons of interest” in the case.

“It’s about money,” Obmerga said of the possible motive behind the killing. She did not elaborate.

A person of interest is anyone the police believe has crucial information about a criminal case or has possible involvement but has yet to be charged.

Obmerga said the persons of interest had left their house. “But we’ve been monitoring them,” she said.

Police are conducting further investigations.

The bodies of the victims will be subjected to post-mortem examinations and autopsies to determine the cause of their deaths. INQ