Detained due to sketches: Suspects in girl's killing arrested

CEBU, Philippines - Two suspects in the kidnap and killing of six-year-old Ellah Joy Pique were positively identified by witnesses at the Cebu Provincial Police Office-Provincial Intelligence Branch yesterday afternoon as those who abducted her.

But the couple identified as Karen Castro Esdrelon, 25, a registered nurse and a resident of Tuburan town and her fiancé, Norwegian national Sven Erik Berger, 47, a resident of Oslo, Norway, strongly denied the allegations saying it was a case of mistaken identity.

The Bureau of Immigration prevented the two from boarding a flight to Hong Kong at the Mactan Cebu International Airport last Saturday evening after their passport pictures resembled cartographic sketches of the suspects police were looking for.

Esdrelon said they will prove to the authorities that they are “one hundred percent innocent”.

“I myself know that we are innocent and I will prove it to them,” she said.

Esdrelon said that there was no way they could have abducted Pique since they were both busy with their engagement. She said that her fiancé arrived here in Cebu 6:40 p.m. last February 7 and they immediately checked in at the Days Hotel in Barangay Matumbo, Lapu-Lapu City, and checked out 8 a.m. the next day.

After they went to Metro Ayala to meet with her aunt to buy an engagement ring then went to the Philippine National Bank to deposit an amount then back to Metro Ayala to meet her cousin and get her Professional Regulations Commission ID card to be submitted at the Sigvathsen Norwegian Language school.

Then they had a late lunch at Family Choice restaurant along Gorordo Ave., Lahug before they checked in at the Waterfront Cebu Hotel and Casino about 5 p.m.

On Wednesday about 11 a.m. they checked out and went to Metro Ayala then the Keppel building then back to Metro Ayala where they rented a car to take them to Tuburan town.

Esdrelon said they can call the driver of the car to testify on their behalf. Berger, who is a systems computer engineer in Kongsberg, Norway, confirmed that they do not have a vehicle but they only rented a blue Toyota Vios driven by a certain Saldy Sala right after he arrived at the airport.

He said that he could not have abducted anyone since he can only manage minimal movement due to an inborn disease called multiple hereditary exostoses in his entire body.

Multiple Hereditary Exostoses is an inherited disorder of bone growth. People who have this grow exostoses, or bony bumps, on their bones which can vary in size, location and number depending on the individual.

The couple’s departure was held about 8 p.m. on Saturday at the MCIA after they resembled the suspects in the cartographic sketches circulated by the authorities.

Berger was also reportedly identified by a pimp only identified as a certain “Lito” as a regular customer in a beerhouse along Pelaez St., barangay Kamagayan, Cebu City.

After Lito saw the sketches in the newspapers he approached radio dyHP reporter Arnold Bustamante and told him that the foreigner once asked to send him a minor in one of the resorts in Moalboal town.

After learning of the information, a team led by CPPO director Erson Digal immediately left for Moalboal and searched the entire resort in Sitio Bas Dako together with the PIB, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7, Regional Intelligence Branch and personnel of the Minglanilla and Moalboal police stations. A cook in one of the resorts reportedly saw the foreigner who hurriedly left before the policemen arrived.

Four kids positively identified Berger and Esdrelon from behind a one-way mirror at the CPPO yesterday, two of them were 10-year-old twin boys in Minglanilla and the other two were Ellah’s schoolmates at the Calajoan Elementary School. They said it was the two who lured Ellah into their vehicle.

A P200,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of her killers.

“Dili lang ang pagtudlo but hasta hangtod ma-file namo ang kaso,” Digal said.

Ellah was abducted last Tuesday after class dismissal and found by a councilman Wednesday morning in Barangay Guibuangan, Barili town, naked and wrapped in white blankets together with three big rocks and tied with electric cable.

Autopsy results showed that she was not raped but had several contusions in her both arms and a lacerated wound in the head causing her death. Police suspect she was used for child pornography. Atty. Salvador Solima, the suspects’ legal counsel, said that his clients were illegally arrested and detained just because of sketches.

“Tungod lang sa sketch? Their narration was clear ug wala’y gitago. I hope ma-release na ni sila ugma,” he said. The suspects will be presented today at the Police Regional Office-7 while the charges to be filed against them have yet to be finalized. —/BRP (FREEMAN)