Dead child gives signs of foul play?

CEBU, Philippines - The family of a nine-year-old girl who was reported to have drowned in Barangay Binaliw last month is requesting the police to reinvestigate the case after the victim allegedly appeared in dreams and gave signs of foul play surrounding her death.

Joey Codeniera requested the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 to reinvestigate the death of his daughter, Jiecel, because he believes that her death was not an ordinary case of drowning. Codeniera said his daughter was killed because of the bruises in different parts of her body.

Jiecel went on swimming in the river near her school where she allegedly drowned last month. Codeniera said they prayed for signs from his daughter before seeking reinvestigation.

The father said his daughter answered his prayers one week later. He said they were given several signs, which convinced him that foul play was involved in his daughter’s death.

Codeniera said that they were surprised during the wake of Jiecel after a very cold wind blew the victim’s bag open. When they checked the bag was wet.

 “Mao to ingon ko basin naa ni sign si inday gihatag. Mao to pag-abli namo sa iyang notebook, mao man among nakit-an iyang gisuwat didto,” the father said.

A sketch of the river, a bridge and the woman washing clothes was found in the notebook. The drawing also had an “x” mark in the area where the body was found.

A speech bubble was also found in the notebook that says, “Mama, Mama, Mama, Hay ma, I love you Mama, Maaa.”

“Mura’g nagpakatabang ba,” the father said.

There was also a face of a man with a word “bad” on top of it.  In another notebook, the names of the five classmates who were with her at the river were also written. There was also a word “bad” on top of it while a word “save” was written beside.

Codeniera said they showed it to the CIDG-7 investigators but they did not believe it until the penmanship was compared to that of the victim. In dreams, the victim also appeared.

“Mao to, nidiritso ko og adto ni sir (Delfin Bontuyan) dayon. Nakaingon ko nga di gyud ni maayo nga kuanon nako, ako gyud ni pangunayon og kumkom sa kamot ang balaod kay nihatag na siya og sign,” said Codeniera.

Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, CIDG-7 acting chief, said they went to Barangay Binaliw last Tuesday to start gathering information about what happened.

He said it is possible that there was foul play because the river was too shallow for the child to drown.

There were also inconsistencies in the accounts of the classmates because they claimed that they swam downstream but the victim was found upstream.

 “And if malunod man yung bata, hindi pwedeng marecover yung bangkay niya upstream. Meaning, mula doon sa nakitang naliligo siya, hindi pwedeng ma-recover yung bangkay sa taas,” said Tayaba.

Tayaba said they already have persons around the area that they consider as persons of interest.

He said they are now conducting background check on these persons. He also said they will have a conference with the medico legal officer who examined the victim’s  body.  (FREEMAN)