Student found dead near police station
Juggling studies, selling newspapers and tending a barbecue stall, Queennie Marie Arriesgado worked hard to achieve her dream of becoming a police officer and lifting her family out of poverty.
Whatever dreams she had could no longer be fulfilled after the 19-year-old was found dead in a grassy area near the Mahiga Creek about 100 meters from the police precinct of barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.
Police said blood was oozing from the victim’s private parts and her basketball shorts and underwear were lowered down to her knees when she was found, indicating that Arriesgado may have been raped before she was killed.
Chief Insp. Ryan Devaras, chief of the Mabolo police station, said they believed that the victim was killed somewhere else and was dumped in the area.
“We didn’t hear any commotion or cries for help,” said Devaras.
The body was discovered by jeepney dispatcher Ramil Noynay, who had gone to the grassy area to relieve himself at 5:15 a.m. yesterday.
Ariesgado, a resident of barangay Luz, Cebu City, had blunt injuries in the head and face.
Devaras said even the security guard of a car display center about 30 meters away didn’t notice any commotion in the site where the body was found.
People in the area also did not notice a woman in distress early morning yesterday.
SPO1 Ruel Victor Ayuman of the homicide section of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) said more than one perpetrator could be involved.
Ayuman said it was also possible that the woman’s head was struck with a hard object and that she was raped when she fell unconscious.
Ayuman said police investigators will try to identify the persons who were with Arriesgado before she was killed.
A 17-year-old girl, a close friend of Arriesgado, rushed to the site.
The girl said she and Arriesgado, fondly called “Queen-Queen” by close acquaintances, had been in a relationship for one year and eight months.
The girl said Arriesgado had confided to her that she had been receiving threats from the boyfriend of her former girlfriend.
“I planned to go to Mabolo but I am afraid that someone would attack me there,” said the girl in Cebuano, quoting Arriesgado from one of their conversations.
As a third year student of the Zapatera National High School, Arriesgado would go to school from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
After her class, Arriesgado would go to a barbecue stall where she was one of the helpers. Then she would sell newspapers from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. along Juan Luna Street.
“Since she was young, I already explained to her our situation. I told her that in order for her to achieve her dreams, she had to study hard,” the victim’s father Jimbo said in Cebuano when interviewed in their home.
Queennie earned about P200 a day selling newspapers and tending a barbecue stall.
“We didn’t ask a single centavo from her because we wanted her to save money for her schooling, said Jimbo, 50.
The wall of Arriesgados’ small house is a one side of a concrete fence.
Queenniee would sleep on a double-deck bed against the wall which she shared with grandmother.
The victim’s 49-year-old mother, Telia, said her daughter had many friends.
“I dont know all her friends and I couldn’t monitor her activities all the time,” said Telia.
Jimbo said their daughter, the elder of two siblings, started selling newspapers in 2010 and recently started working in the barbecue stall.
Jimbo and Telia sell DVDs for a living.
Jimbo said they last saw Queennie alive last Friday afternoon. She was wearing the same clothes when she was found in yesterday.
Alfredo Balingasa, a sidewalk vendor in Juan Luna Avenue, said he last saw Queennie around 11 p.m. Friday with her friends in an Internet cafe in barangay Luz.
“I hope we get justice for my daughter’s death to prove that justice is not only for the rich,” Jimbo said./WITH CORRESPONDENT CHITO O. ARAGON AND UP INTERNS CHRISTINE M. ESTRELLA AND VICTOR ANTHONY V. SILVA
