Girl, 10, hangs self? Cops look into stepma’s story

MANILA, Philippines - Police officers are investigating a 10-year-old girl’s alleged suicide in her house in Malabon City Wednesday.

The girl’s stepmother, Gemma Quilantang, told police that she left the house with her neighbor, Celia Gregorio, to go to the market. She said the girl asked her permission to go to one of the rooms at the second floor of their house, but she refused.

When they returned, Quilantang said she saw the girl hanging by a nylon rope from one of the beams of the house. She said she and her neighbor took the girl down and brought her to the Pagamutang Bayan ng Malabon, where she was declared dead on arrival.

According to a police report, investigators are wondering how a 10-year-old girl could have tied the rope to a beam and hang herself.