Writer's rotting body found in his room

A 55-year-old Cebuano vernacular writer was found dead inside his room in his ancestral house on M.J. Cuenco Avenue corner T. Villa Street in barangay T. Padilla at around 1:30 p.m. last Monday.

The body, identified as that of Franklin Villa, was already in a state of decomposition apparently dead for four days already.

Villa's houseboy Rosendo Ginedo first sensed a disturbing stench permeating the compound and, when he traced its source, he reached Villa's room where he found the corpse.

Ginedo told investigators he last saw his employer alive on July 17 and they could only determine Villa's body was dead at least four days already but they could not yet ascertain the exact date he died.

Homicide police and members of the Scene of the Crime Operations said the decomposing body also made it hard for them to detect any external injury that may help trace the cause of death of Villa.

There was no suicide note either but they found near his body an empty plastic container with a label "pure power muriatic acid", a stained kitchen knife and a pointed instrument.

Investigators also noticed the things in Villa's room were not in disarray that would indicate forced entry or foul play. This prompted them to bring the corpse for an autopsy to the Cebu Rolling Hills.

According to his relatives, Villa was a loner who was too reticent of his activities, such as his frequent travels to Mindanao, except for his last and recent complaint of severe pain in his ears.

Villa was a writer of short stories, in the Visayan dialect, that were published in Banat News and Bisaya Magazine in the past. - Ryan P. Borinaga