By NITZ ARANCON
and LITO RULONA, Correspondents
A SELF-CONFESSED procurer yesterday volunteered information that helped the police in identifying a suspect in the murder of a teenager inside a budget hotel in Barangay Lapasan here.
Police said hotel workers discovered the body of the 17-year old victim sprawled inside the toilet of Room 314 of the hotel past 12 midnight. Her head was in a plastic wrap near the toilet bowl.
Nena (not her real name), a student at the Pagatpat National High School, came from a poor family that survived the 2011 Typhoon Sendong devastation in the city.
Police identified the suspect as 30-year old Jason Caram of Cebu City. The information came from 19-year old Laling Albit who claimed that Nena was a commercial sex worker and that she arranged the meeting between the victim and Caram for a fee on Sunday.
Albit said she brought Nena to the hotel where Caram was staying on Sunday afternoon. She said Caram paid her P2 thousand while Nena supposedly received P3 thousand.
Albit said she decided to see the police and tell them what she knows for fear she would be tagged as a suspect.
“Mi-anhi ko sa pulis kay motistigos ako kay kon dili ko motistigos, apilon man ko nila nga suspect,” Albit said.
Albit said she first talked with Caram on Friday because he called her up. Caram, she said, told her that he got her number from a certain “Lalang” who was unknown to her.
Albit said she found it strange that Caram had asked her to arrange a meeting with him and the victim whose first name he already knew.
“Mao tong ako siyang (Nena) gi-ingnan nga si Jason gusto makig-meet niya ug misugot man pod siya kay hapit na kuno iyang birthday,” Albit said.
She said she left the Lapasan hotel after she introduced Nena to Caram on Sunday afternoon, and did not know what took place after that until yesterday.
Chief Insp. Ariel Philip Pontillas, Agora police chief, said the victim’s family was originally from Barangay Macabalan but moved to a relocation site for Sendong survivors in Pagatpat. Albit, too, lives in the same relocation site.
Pontillas said Caram checked in the hotel at around 1 pm on Sunday. The same afternoon, Nena was introduced to Caram at the hotel.
Pontillas said Nena returned at around 1:30 am Monday and went to the room of Caram. At 6 pm the same day, a roomboy sensed a commotion inside the room, he said.
“Ang ila diay nga patakaran sa maong hotel nga kon dunay mag-away sulod sa kuwarto, dili sila mo-intervene kay ilang gi-observe ang privacy,” said Pontillas.
He said hotel workers started suspecting that something went wrong inside the room because Caram was supposed to check out but did not, prompting them to open it and check.
Pontillas said Caram was no longer inside but Nena’s body was found sprawled on the toilet floor beside the toilet bowl. Police said there were no blood traces and Nena apparently died of suffocation.
Although she had contusions on the head and eyes, Nena’s murder looked like the handiwork of a “professional killer,” Pontillas said.
“Ang dagway sa biktima gipotos lang ug cellophane sa suspect. Mora siyag nato-ok, na-suffocate,” said Pontillas.
He said investigators were gathering more clues and information in the hope of establishing a motive for the murder.
Police said they would carefully check the hotel’s security camera recordings.
Police are out looking for Caram following Albit’s revelations, and investigators are trying to identify all the people Nena had contact with shortly before she was murdered.
Police also took the statement of Nena’s boyfriend Jail Officer 1 Eljohn Labnao, a prison guard at the city jail in Lumbia.
Labnao said he and Nena’s family had been looking for her since Monday because she did not return home. He said he was shocked to learn yesterday morning that his girlfriend was murdered.
Labnao said he received a text message from Nena on Monday morning who told him she would join him for lunch at his home in Sitio Biasong, Macasandig. She never came.
He said he started to worry when he received a call from the victim’s aunt that his girlfriend did not return home, and she was no longer answering her phone.
Labnao said he tried to contact Nena but there was no answer.
“Wala ko magtuo nga duna diay siya’y lain nga kauban. Nagluto pa gyud ko og para paniudto namo,” he said.
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