A FEMALE therapist was found dead and buried near bamboo trees in sitio Jubao, barangay Agsungot, Cebu City, before noon yesterday.
The remains of 24-year-old Maricris Villadolid were found by her live-in partner Richard Taburnal who got alarmed after she failed to return to their shared home in Agsungot, nearly a kilometer away from the crime scene.
Homicide investigator Julius Regis said Taburnal found Villadolid’s remains under a mound beside the bamboo trees in Jubao. Villadolid worked as a therapist at the Holiday Spa in barangay Banilad.
She used to come home late at night, Taburnal said.
Regis said Taburnal found Villadolid hogtied with various contusions on various portions of her body.
Her therapist uniform was supposedly tied around her face.
“Hapit na tungang gabii siya kasagaran maabot kay 10 p.m. na iyang out sa trabaho (The victim would come home at 10 p.m.),” Regis said.
He said Villadolid usually comes home with a fellow female therapist who lived a few meters from the crime scene.
Regis said Taburnal waited for Villadolid to come home last Saturday evening.
When she didn’t arrive, Taburnal reported her disappearance to the Talamban police precinct.
Taburnal checked the area with some neighbors and dug out the mound where they found Villadolid’s remains. The area was isolated.
Taburnal said he suspected his cousin had something to do with the murder.
He said his cousin, whose identity is being withheld until his side is heard on the incident, went to him to sell copra.
Taburnal said he told his cousin to wait for Villadolid who was about to get her payslip.
Taburnal said his cousin may have robbed Villadolid since her wallet was missing at the crime site. /Correspondent Chito Aragon