The victim, Richelle Sagang, was employed as a housemaid at Ayala Alabang Village. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
“I just want to bring her body home,” Noel Sagang said of the young woman who was shot to death and whose head and body were found 37 kilometers apart—the former in Makati City and the latter, in Bulacan province—earlier this month.
The 47-year-old farmer from Zamboanga del Norte (not Surigao as earlier reported) went to the Makati City police headquarters on Tuesday to give his sworn statement.
Sagang said his heart was pounding when he went to identify the body parts, adding he was certain the headless body was that of his 17-year-old daughter Richelle because there were scars on both feet.
“I know this because I took care of her,” Sagang told the Inquirer, adding that the victim had the same forehead and face shape as his daughter. “She was very pretty and kind,” he said.
Chief Supt. Tomas Apolinario Jr., Southern Police District director, however, said that they were still waiting for the results of a DNA test to confirm the farmer’s claim.
Apolinario also said the police were investigating three persons of interest. Asked if these people acted individually, he said they acted as a group.
While raging over his daughter’s brutal death, Sagang said he was leaving it to God to prick the killer’s conscience, pointing his finger heavenward. He also expressed regret that Richelle, the third of six siblings, had to stop her schooling after his wife left them.
Richelle left Liloy, Zamboanga del Norte, when she was about 15 years old to work as a housemaid. When she was killed, she was working for a household at Ayala Alabang Vilage, Muntinlupa City. According to Sagang, he last talked to her on the phone on Jan. 5.
“She said her employer was kind,” Sagang said. “She said she would send money soon.”
Sagang learned about what happened after police probers contacted him and asked him to identify the woman in the pictures taken by Ayala Alabang Village security officers. This was the last time Richelle was seen alive.
The long-sleeved black shirt and blue leggings she was wearing in the photos were the same clothes found on the headless body dumped in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, on Jan. 12. The head was discovered in a creek in Makati City two days later.