(Updated, 4:43 p.m.) The 14-year-old boy who went missing at the time teenager Carl Angelo Arnaiz was killed was found dead in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija, a police official confirmed Wednesday.
Gapan City Police Chief PSupt. Peter Madria confirmed to INQUIRER.net that the missing teen, Reynaldo de Guzman, was found at Dariz Funeral Home in Barangay (village) San Roque on Tuesday.
Madria said a resident discovered the body at a creek at around 11:30 a.m. It was reported to the police at around 1:30 p.m.
“May isang residente doon po ang nakatuklas na may katawang lumutang sa creek (There was a resident there who found a body floating in the creek),” Madria said.
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The police chief said the parents of the boy positively identified the remains of their son.
“Nagpunta po ‘yung magulang, ‘yung tatay, in-identify po nila na ‘yun si Reynaldo de Guzman, 14 years old,” he said.
(The parents went there. The father identified that the body was indeed Reynaldo de Guzman’s, the 14-year-old boy.)
The boy’s body bore stab wounds and his head was wrapped in packing tape, similar to victims of vigilante killings.
The police have yet to conduct an autopsy on the boy’s body.
De Guzman was last seen with Arnaiz on August 18 after the two went out for midnight snack in their neighborhood in Barangay San Andres, Cainta, Rizal.
Arnaiz was found 10 days later, on August 28, at a morgue in Caloocan City after allegedly fighting it out with the police.
Caloocan City Police claimed that Arnaiz, on the night he went missing, mugged a taxi driver and fired at the police who tried to arrest him.
However, the autopsy report by the Public Attorney’s Office indicated that Arnaiz’s body showed signs of torture before the time he was killed. IDL
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