ANGELES CITY—Slain bank teller Tania Camille Dee may have been starved before she was shot in the head by her assailant, according to an autopsy report which was revealed by police sources on Monday.
“Her stomach was empty, suggesting she had not eaten for three or four days. The bullet tore through the back of her head and exited through her face leaving so much damage to her features,” said one of two sources, who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to discuss the findings.
The Pampanga Criminal Investigation and Detection Team (CIDT) has not received the official autopsy report on Dee, whose body was exhumed by policemen on Sunday morning at the backyard of an unoccupied house in Sta. Maria Subdivision in Barangay Balibago here.
Dee, 33, a teller of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) in Manila, was reported missing since June 20, the day she was supposed to meet her former husband, Fidel Sheldon Arcenas, 38, in this city.
In a telephone interview on Monday, Chief Insp. Ferdinand Aguilar, chief of the Pampanga CIDT, said he was given the same details about Dee’s autopsy, but stressed that he had yet to receive a copy of the report.
Aguilar said teams from CIDT are trying to find Arcenas and his girlfriend, Angela Dychioco, 33, who had been considered suspects in the murder investigation.
Angela is a daughter of Regina Dychioco, who owns the property where Dee’s body was found.
Regina rents out the house, but it had not been used since its tenant left three months ago.
She informed CIDT that her daughter and Arcenas had borrowed the keys of that house weeks go. Arcenas returned the keys to Regina on June 26.
Regina had tipped off CIDT on Saturday night after her daughter, who she noticed to be anxious and looking distraught, informed her that “something happened at the back of the house.”
“Mrs. Dychioco was suspecting the worst. She knew that Tania (Dee) was missing. When she heard her daughter said something happened there, she sought our help,” Aguilar said.
After securing Dychioco’s permission, a team from the Pampanga CIDT, the Central Luzon police’s Scene of Crime Operations and the Angeles City police’s crime laboratory searched the backyard of her house. They found Dee’s body in a shallow grave, her head wrapped in a towel and plastic garbage bag.
Dee’s relatives and friends continue to seek justice for her over social media.
Their Facebook profile photos now show the hashtag, #justicefortania, set against a black background as well as a photograph of Arcenas captioned with the word, “Wanted.”
Dee’s relatives and friends have expressed fears of a whitewash due to the Arcenas family’s supposed connections in the government.
Arcenas’ father, Fidel, served as adviser to Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan from 1992 to 1998 and to former Pampanga governor and now Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid.
The older Arcenas also served as provincial administrator during the term of former Pampanga Gov. Mark Lapid, the senator’s son.
The suspect’s father is currently the assistant chief operating officer for administration and finance of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, an agency ran by Mark Lapid. Jun Malig, Inquirer Central Luzon
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