The Cruz family mausoleum at the Manila Memorial Park in Paranaque. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CRUZ FAMILY
When Maria Pilar Cruz was still alive she always found her way back to her family.
This time, the urn containing her ashes which was stolen on March 3 from the Cruz family mausoleum in Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque, was returned Tuesday evening, said Chief Supt. Tomas Apolinario Jr., director of the Southern Police District.
Apolinario said the urn and ashes of Cruz, who was fondly called Pipie, were at his office at the SPD headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, and would be turned over to her family at the mausoleum at 1 p.m. today.
He said an anonymous citizen contacted SPD and expressed his desire to surrender the urn after learning of the robbery from social media.
The citizen said Pipie’s gold-plated urn and another empty brass metal urn were sold to him for P1,900 by Dionisio Layson, a former caretaker at Manila Memorial Park.
Layson surrendered to authorities on March 9, claiming that his conscience bothered him after learning that the urns were stolen from the cemetery.
He also claimed that he only sold the urns while pointing to a certain Loui Alday and an alias Marvin, as the ones who took the urns from the Cruz mausoleum.
The three suspects were neighbors in Clinic Ville, a residential compound beside Manila Memorial Park in Barangay BF Homes.
Layson was detained at Parañaque police station, facing robbery charges. Alday and Marvin remain at large.
Missing for 10 months
Pipie, a bank analyst based in New York, was reported missing in April 2003, prompting her family to fly to the United States to search for her.
The search ended after 10 months but with an unfortunate news. Her body was found inside a suitcase that was buried under a concrete flooring in a garage of a house in Newark, New Jersey on Feb. 18, 2004.
Police said Pipie died of anesthesia overdose while undergoing surgery by fake doctor Dean Faiello.
She was cremated in the US and was finally laid to rest at the Cruz mausoleum in Manila Memorial Park in 2006.
Her family observed Pipie’s 50th birth anniversary last March 9. /cbb
READ: Urn with woman’s ashes stolen from cemetery in Parañaque / Suspect in urn theft yields