Woman linked to slay of Cebu student yields, seeks to clear name

CEBU CITY—The woman who was the subject of a manhunt operation in connection with the killing of a 17-year-old accountancy student surrendered to the police on Saturday to clear her name.

Senior Supt. Armando Radoc, Lapu-Lapu City police director, said that after talking to the woman, they found no basis to implicate her in the slay of Karen Kaye Montebon.

A witness told the police that the woman was not the same person she saw knocking on the door of Montebon’s house on Sept. 15 about the same time the victim was believed killed.

The woman’s former live-in partner also showed up at the police station on Friday to deny that he was the same person seen outside the house with the woman.

The man said he and his ex-partner broke up on Sept. 1.

READ: Police clear man seen at Cebu slay victim’s house door

Radoc said they would release the woman after taking her fingerprints which would be matched with those recovered from the crime scene.

The woman would be cleared only if the laboratory tests showed negative results, Radoc said.

To protect her privacy, he declined to identify the woman, only saying that she was in her 40s and a native of Inabanga town, Bohol.

Montebon was found dead inside her room at her house in Corinthians Subdivision in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu, by her father James after arriving home from work.

READ: College student raped, killed in Cebu home

The police had been looking into a couple who were seen outside the house of the victim before the crime was committed.

A man drove the vehicle while his female companion knocked on the door. Jhunnex Napallacan/RC