‘Get our daughter’s killer’

"Please, get the killer of my daughter before she is laid to rest."

This was the only wish of the grieving mother of 23-year-old bank employee Candice Castro, who was brutally murdered inside her condominium unit in Malate, Manila last May 12.

Grace Castro said she hopes and prays the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Western Police District (WPD) do not waste time in arresting Babes Reyes, who is being tagged as the alleged mastermind in the rape-slay of Candice.

"We hope to see him captured before we go home to Naga City to lay Candice to her final resting place," Mrs. Castro told The STAR during an interview at her daughter’s wake at Funeraria Paz in Quezon City last Thursday night.

The WPD earlier arrested one of the suspects, Philippe Marcelo, who was also a tenant at the Vallejo Tower Condominium, after his bloodied footprintswere traced from the crime scene to his unit at the sixth floor.

However, Marcelo has denied the charges against him and implicated Reyes, son of an intelligence officer of the Bureau of Immigration, as the alleged attacker. No one has corroborated Marcelo’s claims against Reyes.

Ten days after Castro’s body was found inside her unit at the Vallejo Tower in Malate, police have yet to find Reyes.

"If he is not guilty, why would he hide. If he is not guilty, then he must surrender. He might be able to help us find the real killer," Mrs. Castro said.

The mother said they have been following up developments in case by coordinating with the police and reading stories in the newspapers, but said they are not satisfied with the police work.

"Several days have passed, but they have yet to arrest the perpetrator," she said in Filipino as she showed several news clippings from The Philippine Star. Mrs.Castro also criticized the WPD for failing to preserve the crime scene.

"The police initially barred us from entering Candice’s condo unit to preserve the crime scene, but apparently other people managed to get in and even take some of her things there," she lamented.

Mrs. Castro said a woman approached them and even handed over Candice’s passport, which was allegedly found at a fastfood chain near the town. "How come other people were able to get hold of my daughter’s belongings, which were supposed to be kept in her condominium unit?"

She noted that the police apparently did not ask Candice’s condo neighbors, who could help shed light to the killing.

The NBI and the WPD launched a massive manhunt against Reyes after he failed to surrender and comply with the ultimatum given to him by NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco last Friday.

Because the suspect failed to surface, lawyer Edmund Arugay, chief of the NBI-National Capital Region (NCR), said his men are now in the field to arrest Reyes, who has been in hiding since his name was linked to the killing.

"We are still, however, negotiating for his arrest. We are trying to find common friends who can convince Reyes to surrender and face the charges being leveled against him," Arugay said.

The Castro family has placed on top of her casket a white box with three chicks inside, which they said, would help the NBI and the WPD in locating Reyes.

Old people believe that having chicks at the wake of a murder victim was one way of getting to the killer.

They say that each time a chick pecks a piece of grain the murderer would feel it and, bothered by his conscience, eventually surrender.

Tragedy In Manila

Candice was in their hometown in Naga City the weekend before the killing.

Her mother said she still could not believe that it would be the last time she would see her daughter alive.

"She was her usual jolly self. I could have never predicted that something bad would happen to her after two days. She even visited a friend, who celebrated her birthday in Pampanga before going back to her condominium in Manila," recalled Mrs. Castro.

It has been Candice’s dream to own her own condominium unit, which she viewed as a symbol of her independence. She used to stay at a boarding house while she was studying college. But when renovation work began on the boarding house, Candice decided to move to Vallejo. That was just two months ago.

Shortly after she got the condominium unit, Candice called her mother to inform her that she was safe.

"I then instructed her to call her auntie to console her after her husband passed away. I later learned that she even went to the wake at Funeraria Paz. Apparently the killer or killers saw her when she came home that night," she said.

At around 3 to 4 a.m. last Tuesday, Mrs. Castro said she was awakened by the loud sound from a motorcycle outside their house, prompting her to wake up her husband Rogelio to check. "After we got up, the motorcycle had left. I thought it was kind of weird so we just returned to sleep."

It was around noon when management of the Vallejo Tower called up Mrs. Castro, asking her to come to the condominium because Candice was being taken by an ambulance.

She then called up her sister in Batangas to call her son, who was also studying in Manila to check on Candice.

The nephew was about to go to school, but proceeded to the tower, where he found out that Candice was already dead.

"Now that she is dead, we only want justice so she could be at peace. We want the killer to be arrested and prosecuted," said Mrs. Castro, as she tried to hold back her tears. "I want to meet the killer face to face and to ask him if he is happy now that Candice is dead."