Girl killed after apparent rape in Taguig

MANILA, Philippines – A nine-year-old girl sent on an errand to buy disposable diapers at a nearby store was found dead two hours later on a grassy lot in Taguig City Friday night, her throat slashed and her lower garments pulled down, police said.

The police said the body of the girl, whose name they refused to release to the media as part of their protocol, was found approximately 25 meters from her house in Barangay (village) Sta. Ana.

On the same night that the body was found, the police arrested a suspect, the victim’s 33 year-old neighbor.

Chief Inspector Edna Catilogo, head of the Taguig police’s women and children protection desk, said the girl, a Grade 3 pupil, was asked by her grandmother to go out and buy some diapers for her brother at 7 p.m.

“The grandmother and the girl’s parents began to worry when she did not come back after 30 minutes” and sought the help of the local neighborhood watch, Catilogo said.

“At 9 p.m., one barangay tanod saw the girl sprawled on the ground with her lower garments pulled down. Her throat was slashed,” she added.

The police strongly believe that the victim was raped before she was killed, although that could be confirmed only by the results of an investigation by Scene of Crime Operatives, according to Catilogo.

One suspect, a neighbor of the victim and a worker at a coconut lumber company, was taken into police custody immediately after the crime was discovered, she said.

Catilogo said the girl’s body was found right in front of the suspect’s house, where members of the neighborhood watch found a trail of blood. The knife believed to have been used was also found in a bucket filled with water.

The police would not release the name of the suspect until such time that murder and rape charges are filed against the suspect in the Taguig prosecutor’s office, Catilogo said.