GOOD MEMORIES. Salma Theresa Gerona Quijano with her husband, former Iligan mayor Franklin Quijano, in this photo she posted as her Facebook profile photo on Jan. 5, 2011.
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By Frank Dosdos Jr. with NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents .

ILIGAN City – Dentures taken from the mouth of a dead woman found floating in Mandulog River near the house of former mayor Franklin Quijano here nearly matched that of the politician’s wife Salma Theresa.

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Quijano, now administrator of the Phividec Industrial Authority that runs an industrial estate in Misamis Oriental, announced on his Facebook page that the body fished out of the river was autopsied July 30, and the results showed that his wife’s dental records “almost perfecfly matched” that of the corpse.

“Even as the dentures may have matched that of the dental record of Titatit (Salma Theresa), we still cling to that chance that it could not be her, we decided to have a DNA test of the body,”  Quijano said.

As soon as Quijano posted this, his Facebook wall was flooded with messages of sympathies.

City hall spokesman Jose Pantoja said police found no sign of foul play when they examined the corpse, and how the woman died has remained a mystery.

“We can only speculate based on information that Mrs. Quijano had suffered from depression, and that she had been very upset because of family matters,” said Pantoja.

Cpl. Mark Encabo of the Iligan Police Station 1 said police investigators here have yet to receive a copy of the autopsy result from the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) at presstime. He said they could not say what the cause of death was.

Quijano’s wife went missing June 27, leaving his family no clue and no trail.

Two days later, a body was found floating in Mandulog River, just a stone’s throw from where the Quijanos live. 

Quijano said his family immediately went to the area where crime scene investigators had gone, to check the body.

“When the body was retrieved, the impression we got was, it was not her, as it did not resemble her,” he said.

Quijano said the dead woman also wore a rash guard that no one in his family was familiar with.

“Our clueless and fruitless, but unrelenting search continued for almost a month.  Even the sketchiest tip, we took, grabbed, followed and investigated.  We ended up facing a blank wall,” he said.

Quijano said that made his family decide to take stock and retrace their steps to square one — authorities were then asked to take a second look at the body.  

Following the July 30 examination, “We were unnerved to be informed that the dental records of Titatit (Salma Theresa) almost perfecfly matched that of the dead body,” he said.

As of this writing, the Quijano family is waiting for the results of the DNA examination.

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