Who gets P500,000 reward in Karen Montebon case?
CEBU CITY–Now that the alleged killer of Karen Kaye Montebon was killed on Tuesday on an islet off Bohol province, who would get the P500,000 cash reward offered by the Lapu-Lapu City government?
No one, said Senior Supt. Armando Radoc, Lapu-Lapu City police director.
He explained that the cash reward was offered to those who could provide information leading to the arrest of the killer or the resolution of the Montebon murder case.
Radoc said the prime witness who was instrumental in identifying Ruben Fernandez was his live-in partner, Jenalyn Soon.
Fernandez was killed on an island in Getafe town, Bohol on Tuesday afternoon by unknown assailants before the police could pick him up.
READ: Main suspect in rape-slay of Karen Montebon shot dead
Radic said that while Soon confessed what she knew, she had withheld some information, that he had to resort to scolding her during the interrogation.
One example, he said, he first reprimanded Soon before she admitted that Fernandez went inside the house of Montebon in the morning of Sept. 15.
Soon claimed that they went to the victim’s home in Corinthians Subdivison in Lapu-Lapu to check if her sister, who was based in Hawaii, had sent money for her family.
Soon eventually admitted that while she was inside the house, Montebon asked her to let Fernandez inside the house.
When they left the house, Soon claimed that she was dropped outside the subdivision because the motorcycle had ran out of fuel and Fernandez had to gas-up. Soon said she did not know that Fernandez went back to the Montebons’ house.
Radoc said he would recommend to Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza that the city extend a sort of allowance to the persons who helped them confirm the whereabouts of the suspect.
Pressure from social media, Cebuanos
Local police were under pressure to solve the case, which became viral on social media. Karen Kaye’s alma mater, the University of San Carlos, also held candle light vigils on campus and solidarity Masses for the slain student.
READ: Calls for justice echo over Cebu rape-killing
Radaza, in a press statement, said “the death of the principal suspect… is a major breakthrough in the case.”
“I thank the police for working very hard to give justice to the senseless killing of a very young Oponganon, Karen Kaye. I thank her classmates, schoolmates, the youth and the Cebuanos in general for making their voices heard by using social media with #justiceforkarenkayemontebon to push the police to resolve the case quickly.
The vigilance of the traditional media has also seen to it that the pursuit of the killer didn’t waver. When we unite as a people for a common good it always brings a positive result. I await a detailed report from the police to ascertain that the case is closed.” CDG
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