‘Mummified’ German found dead in own yacht off the coast of Barobo

By BEN SERRANO,
Correspondent

BUTUAN CITY — The mummified remains of a German found inside his yacht drifting in the middle of the ocean — about 140 kilometers away from the coast of Barobo, Surigao del Sur — is now at Funeral Dollete in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur waiting to be claimed by relatives or family, the town’s top cop said.

The German was identified by UK-based news web portal as one Manfred Fritz Bajorat,

“With that distance, definitely it is not within Barobo municipal waters anymore because Municipal sea waters is only within 20 to 30 kilometers I think,” Senior Insp. Mark Navales, Baro-bo, Surigao del Sur Deputy Chief of Police, said.

German found inside the radio room of his yacht was not found within Barobo municipal waters but was found by fishermen some 62 miles away from the shores of Barobo.

Navales said the Barobo police decided to place the German’s cadaver at Funearia Dollete because it was already in the advanced state of decomposition while waiting for the results of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) findings.

Navales claimed many foreign journalists including a Gemany-based newspaper have contacted Barobo police  and one of the German journalist claimed their newspaper found out that Bajorat was a widower back in Germany.

“That it would be best if we will know the result of the Soco findings if the victim’s death was due to a foul play or not,” Navales added. Barobo town is about 100 kilometers away from this city.

Fishermen in the coastal town of Barobo found on Feb. 25 afternoon the almost decomposing corpse of a foreigner inside a yacht floating possibly within the vicinity of the Pacific Ocean.

One of the fishermen who saw the yacht, Christopher Escartin Rivas told Barobo police they discovered the yacht just floating dead on the water with its sails torn.

Escartin told Chief of Investigators SPO4 Elecito S. Rivas that they boarded the yacht because they were curious and were surprised to discover the dead body inside the yacht’s radio room. At about 3 pm of Feb. 26, Escartin added, they arrived at Barobo town.

Police said they have already contacted the German Embassy in Manila for assistance on other information about the victim.