QC cops seek more leads on baby snatcher

THE MAN who sold an abducted baby to a couple last week purportedly left this photo behind. QCPD MASAMBONG STATION

Even with the year-old kidnap victim returned safely to his parents, the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) remains in pursuit of the man who snatched him from his home in Barangay San Antonio.

QCPD Director Richard Albano said police investigators also had not been able to get in touch with the Parañaque City couple who kept the boy safe after he was sold to them Tuesday for P1,200.

While they returned the boy to his parents, Lovelio and Winnifer Mendoza, at a fast food restaurant in San Francisco del Monte on Friday morning, Albano told the Inquirer the Parañaque couple could still help QCPD investigators fill in some of the blanks in the abduction, particularly details on the kidnapper.

“Our investigators have been trying to get in touch with them through their mobile phone since Friday afternoon but they have neither been replying to text messages nor answering the phone,” said Albano.

The Good Samaritans opted to withhold their identities when they returned the boy to the Mendoza couple, saying only that they lived in the Baclaran area.

QCPD Masambong station commander Supt. Pedro Sanchez told the Inquirer that neither he nor his men were able to speak with the couple who hurriedly left after turning the boy over to his parents.

“They might have been scared by all the media attention at the fast food restaurant,” he said.

Albano said the Parañaque couple had nothing to fear as police investigators only wanted to ask about the kidnapper. “The suspect might have given them other hints to his whereabouts that they might remember,” he said.

Late Friday afternoon, the QCPD released an artist’s sketch of the suspected kidnapper from descriptions given by residents of Sta. Fe Street in Barangay San Antonio of the man they saw on Tuesday morning leaving with the boy on a tricycle.

They described him as being in his early 30s, at least five feet four inches tall, slim and apparently a scavenger based on his clothes and untidy appearance.

According to the QCPD Masambong station, the boy was abducted on Tuesday at around 10 a.m. on Sta. Fe Street while the child’s mother was buying a mobile phone load from a store.