Ma finds teen dead; police eye murder

By CONG B. CORRALES
Associate Editor

A SINGLE mother had the shock of her life after finding her teenage daughter lifeless in her bedroom in their rented pad at a gated subdivision in Carmen, this city, yesterday.

Police said they were looking into all the possible causes for the teenager’s death but hinted that investigators were suspecting murder.

Authorities identified the dead teenager as Stacey Villar, 14-year old 8th grader at the Abba’s Orchard Montessori School. “We have a suspect in mind, and the percentage is high. We’re looking for that person right now,” said Chief Insp. Lemuel Gonda, chief for operations and planning of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo).

Villar’s mother Madet, who checked the teenager’s room, found her lifeless daughter on bed with a blanket wrapped around her body.

Gonda said Villar was alone all night in the rented pad on Egret St., Morning Mist Subdivision in Upper Carmen. He said the mother went home at around 2 am, and found the front door unlocked.

Investigators found no sign of forcible entry, and their neighbors did not hear any commotion or pleas for help the night before. “We found a part of a power cord for an iPhone 5 beside her,” said Gonda. He added that there were bruises around the victim’s neck.

Gonda also said Villar was fully clothed when the mother found her. An official from Abba’s Orchard, who asked not to be named, said Villar had a happy disposition in school, and that she showed no signs of being depressed or sad.

“Malipayon man siya nga bata. Hilumon lang,” the school official said. The teenager’s football coach told the Gold Star Daily that the victim was still online at around 11 pm of Aug. 12. Gonda said police were not ruling anything out yet pending the outcome of the investigation of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco). He said autopsy results would likely be known today.

“We will be asking her (Stacey) friends, classmates, and neighbors so we could piece up everything,” said Gonda.