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Nasingin islet in Getafe, Bohol province was a hiding place for the main suspect in the murder of Karen Kaye Montebon.
According to the police, the suspect Ruben Fernandez had a sister there.
READ: Main suspect in rape-slay of Karen Montebon shot dead
He was shot dead in the head and chest by unidentified parties past 5 p.m. Tuesday just before Lapu-Lapu policemen arrived on two pump boats.
No gun was found in his possession.
“Dunay naka-witness. Gipahapa kuno ni siya usa gipusil,” said Sr. Supt. Armando Radoc, chief of the Lapu-Lapu police, who sent his men there to arrest the suspect.
(There was a witness who saw Fernandez made to lie face down before he was shot.)
A source from the islet said Fernandez, who was hiding in the house of his sister, Maria Jovelin, sensed the arrival of the law enforcers, and was about to flee.
He and a companion were bringing fuel for a motor banca and were heading to the shoreline when the shooting occurred.
“When our men arrived in Nasingin, our boats were about to dock when they heard gunfire. They went to the site and found the body of the suspect,” said Radoc in Cebuano.
Getafe police led by Senior Insp. Marcelino Mejias met the Lapu-Lapu policemen at the shore.
Fernandez was identified through a photo and a body tattoo. He was lying face down near a footbridge about 300 meters from the shore.
Radoc said he sent his men to Bohol immediately after his phone conversation with Rosalyn Hummel last Monday. Police said big waves delayed their trip. Instead of a commercial trip, two motorized pump boats with seven personnel each went to the island, on Radoc’s insistence.
Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, who heads a task force assigned for Montebon ‘s murder case, said he assigned investigators to find out who killed Fernandez.
The Getafe police initially said they do not know killed the suspect.
READ: Robbery motive in murder of Cebu slay victim, suspect killed in Bohol
Fernandez had a prior police record, and was jailed two to three times before for theft cases, said Lawas.
The suspect was released from jail in 2014.
His remains were brought to Lapu-Lapu city Tuesday night and will undergo an autopsy by the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory. Norman Mendoza and Jhunnex Napallacan/RAM