By NITZ ARANCON
and LITO RULONA
Correspondents
POLICE yesterday focused on murder in the ongoing investigation into the death of an Abba’s Orchard Montessori School 8th grader at Morning Mist Subdivision in Upper Carmen even as they named the alleged estranged lover of the victim’s mother as a suspect.
Fourteen-year old Stacey Villar was found dead by her mother Merideth “Madet” Mah in their rented pad on Egret St., Morning Mist Subdivision on Thursday morning.
Supt. Lemuel Gonda, city police chief for operations and planning, identified the suspect as 50-year old Gregorio Rosabal Santos Jr. a.k.a. Boyet, married of Alco Homes in Sitio Sta. Cruz, Carmen.
Gonda said the police was informed that Santos had confided to a relative in Gingoog City that “iyang natuok ang bata.” He said investigators learned that Mah and Santos broke up a month ago, that the suspect was the jealous type, and that the teenager was against the relationship.
“The suspect frequented the place were the victim and her mother lived. He would even spend the night there on some occasions. The suspect and the guards were already familiar with each other and so, he was no longer asked to leave his ID,” said Gonda.
He noted that the rented pad where Villar was found dead showed no sign of forcible entry. Gonda said police suspected the teenager was attacked while she was asleep. The teenager, he said, could have put up a good fight, and even hurt any less fit 50-year old man because she had taekwondo training and played football.
City police director Senior Supt. Faro Antonio Olaguera said Santos was identified because of a surveillance camera recording. Police said the surveillance camera recording shows the suspect was in the area at around 12:54 am, and then left the subdivision at around 1:37 am Thursday.
“The intelligence operatives of the Carmen police station are now tracking him down. Hopefully, he will surrender or be arrested soon,” Olaguera said.
He said the police were also in touch with Santos’s relatives in the hope that he would be convinced to hand himself over to authorities.
Santos, according to Olaguera, had been involved in a drug case years ago but it was dismissed in court. Gonda said some of Villar’s neighbors told the police that they suspected Santos to be hooked on drugs. Chief Insp. Joepet Paglinawan, Carmen police chief, said investigators were still trying to establish a motive for what looked like a murder by strangulation.
Paglinawan said the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) has yet to release its findings on the exact cause of death of Villar, and on the “marks” found around her neck.
“Sa initial nga nakita sa Soco, na-ay marka ang li-og sa biktima nga morag agig sa pisi or alambre,” said Paglinawan. According to Gonda, police went to Santos’s house in Carmen but he was not around. He said there was information the suspect was with some of his relatives in Gingoog City.
“We already coordinated with other police units in Gingoog and the eastern towns. We are tracking him down,” he said. Meanwhile, investigators were looking into Villar’s mother’s whereabouts the night before she found her daughter dead, and the reason why Mah was out till the wee hours when she knew her underaged daughter was alone in the pad.
Gonda said police were also looking into the holdings placed under Villar’s name by her late father. The victim was a child born out of wedlock.
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