Missing guard surfaces in Samar hospital

It had all the ingredients of a mystery: The inexplicable disappearance of three persons, including a 10-year-old boy, a preschool owner, and his caretaker, a missing car—and a bloody trail.

But with one of the missing persons turning up  at a hospital in Northern Samar province, some 733 kilometers   from Manila,  the Manila Police District (MPD) has started unraveling the mystery.

Far from home

MPD Sta. Cruz Station 3 commander Supt. James Afalla told the Inquirer that Heidelberg preschool caretaker and security guard Tony Austria was tracked down Thursday afternoon at the Catarman Provincial Hospital.

Austria was brought to the hospital by residents of Lope de Vega town in Northern Samar  after he was found by  the riverside with a bullet wound in the back.

Austria told police that his  employer, Heidelberg preschool director Reynaldo Aguilar, who also teaches at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and a 10-year-old boy who did chores for the school, had apparently been kidnapped by a man they  knew.

Target

“The target was the school owner but the suspect took along the caretaker and the boy because they witnessed the kidnapping,” Afalla said.

The suspected kidnapper allegedly tied up the three and forced them into Aguilar’s gold Ford Focus (ZEF-884) and brought them to Northern Samar, a 15-hour trip by land and sea  from Manila.

The boy and Aguilar remain missing and are the subject of continuing search and rescue operations.

“I have sent some of my men to get in touch with Austria to try to locate the two who are still missing,” he said.

Police alert

Police were alerted to the case  when a stay-in employee of the Heidelberg Preschool on P. Guevarra Street, Sta. Cruz, reported on Wednesday afternoon a trail of blood  from the school entrance on the second floor down to the first floor of the  building.

When MPD investigators forced open the door leading to Austria’s room, blood was also discovered on the floor and in the bathroom.

The room was in disarray.

Assistance

Aguilar’s wife, Lourdes, later reported her husband and his car missing  since Tuesday night

The mother of the 10-year-old boy also  sought the assistance of police in searching for her son who had also disappeared around the same time from the preschool.

MPD investigators  later  found out that   Austria was also   no where to be found.