Search for missing DILG officer ends with grisly find

NAGA CITY, Philippines—The search for a town officer of the Department of the Interior and Local Government who was reported missing nearly a week ago ended with Wednesday’s grisly discovery of her decomposing body inside the trunk of a car, parked outside a hotel here.

The police were led to the remains of Ayres O. Napere, 32, the DILG officer of Bombon, Camarines Sur, by her self-confessed assailant, Dennis Eric Medina, also a DILG officer of Naga City.

Medina, 35, brought the police to where he said he hid Napere’s body at around 9 p.m. Wednesday, ending five days of intense search for the missing lawyer.

The motive was money, or more precisely, the refusal of Napere to lend cash to Medina, who was allegedly addicted to online gambling, said Superintendent Nilo Berdin, deputy police director of Naga City.

Medina, also a lawyer, was surrounded by policemen when he opened the trunk of his car and showed the body of Napere placed inside two sacks. He immediately covered his nose and mouth, recoiling from the stench in the trunk that wafted toward the crowd of kibitzers beyond the police line.

Guia O. Alteche, elder sister of Napere, was inconsolable and wished death for Medina and called him an animal.

Alteche said her sister was unfortunate to be a friend of Medina, who, she said, stole from her sister’s bank account at least P100,000 since she went missing Friday last week.

Alteche said she and the victim’s husband, Gerald, and other relatives had been searching for her sister around Naga accompanied by Medina’s estranged wife, Sheila. It was Sheila, also a lawyer and Ayres’ best friend, who reported to the police on Friday afternoon that Ayres was missing, Alteche said.

Sheila, the DILG officer assigned in Cabusao, Camarines Sur, was a friend of Ayres since their law student days at Aquinas University in Legazpi City, Berdin said.

Berdin said Medina confessed to his crime at past 4 p.m. Wednesday in front of his DILG co-workers, who trooped to the police station to give their statements.

The police official said Medina initially denied he had any knowledge about Napere’s disappearance but later confessed after his colleagues told police he was the last person seen with Ayres.

Case investigator Police Officer 2 Jeffrey Roz on Thursday said their investigation showed that Medina fetched Napere from her office in Bombon at around 9 a.m. They were on board Medina’s car bound for Naga City, just about 10 km from the town, when he asked to borrow money from her. When she refused, Medina stopped the car along a town road, pretending the vehicle had engine trouble. Medina then got out and took a nylon cord from the trunk that he used to pull the car every time his car stalled.

Medina then went back into the vehicle, this time behind Napere who was in the front passenger seat, and tied her to the seat with the nylon cord wrapped around her neck, body and hands.

A witness onboard a motorcycle passed by and sensed trouble inside the car but was greeted by Medina through a half open window of the heavily tinted car. The witness said he fleetingly saw a woman in the front seat.

Medina was again driving toward Naga when Napere struggled to get out, but she was stopped by the suspect. The two were seen by another witness who jotted down the plate number of Medina’s silver Toyota Corolla.

Upon reaching Naga, Medina just drove around the city for most of Friday morning telling Napere he would let her go if she would keep quiet about the incident. With no money to buy food, Medina asked Napere for her ATM cards and forced her to reveal her pin numbers.

Roz said Medina then drove to Almeda Highway, a diversion road that cuts across a private subdivision in the city, and again promised he would free Napere if she would calm down.

But Napere struggled anew and tried to escape. It was then that Medina strangled her until she lost consciousness. Medina then drove to his house in Naga City, where he lived alone, and tried to revive Napere. Failing to do so, Medina checked into a drive-in hotel in nearby Camaligan town, where he stuffed Napere’s five-foot body into two sacks before hiding her in the trunk of his car.

Roz said that from March 8 to 13, Medina brought the victim’s body wherever he went, even as he did his daily activities until Wednesday.

Medina even still played online games at the hotel just hours before he went to the police station here to confess to his crime on Wednesday, Roz said.

Medina, who has two young children, has been separated from his wife and children because of his gambling, according to Roz.

He said Napere, who was a close confidante of Medina’s wife Sheila, was unwittingly drawn into the marital trouble of the Medina couple and was often the arbiter in their fights.