Police to file abuse charges vs little Kate’s stepmom

CHARGES of physical injury with homicide and child abuse will be filed today against the stepmother of the  5-year-old girl who died  after two weeks of confinement in a government hospital last month.

Kate Arianne Chu Flores died last July 27, but Chief Insp. Elmer Fernandez, chief of the Centro police precinct in Mandaue City, said it took   them over a week  to file the charges due to a request from the family.

He said the family asked them to wait  after they bury Kate  today in the Mandaue City public cemetery.

Abigail Catindijan, the stepmother who is seven months pregnant, remains at large.

Fernandez said they will wait for the court to issue a warrant of arrest since the  period for a hot-pursuit operation to justify a warrantless arrest has lapsed.

Kate’s death certificate showed that she died of “sepsis and post-traumatic stress disorder secondary to child abuse” last July 27.

She was left in  Catindijan’s care by her father, Arthur Flores,  who worked as a truck driver plying the Manila-Cebu route

Her grandmother and siblings brought the little girl to the Mandaue police last month to report she was a victim of abuse. /Jucell Marie P. Cuyos