6-year-old girl, grandma brutally killed in Cebu

CEBU — A 60-year-old woman and her six-year-old granddaughter were found dead with multiple stab and hack wounds inside their hut in Naga town Saturday morning.

The victims, Morita Chua and her granddaughter Mary Joy Chua, each bore 11 wounds inflicted by an icepick, a knife and a bolo. Their skulls were cracked.

Morita had seven hack wounds and four stab wounds, while Mary Joy had eight hack wounds and three stab wounds.

The police still face a blank wall on the killing.

Neighbors, however, said it could be a simple robbery or could be the handiwork of cattle rustlers in the village. One neighbor said the elder Chua accidentally saw a rustler stealing a cow from a neighbor’s yard.

Only the old woman and her granddaughter were staying in the Chuas’ house in Purok Mangga, Barangay Uling in Naga town, while Morita’s son and Mary Joy’s father, Felimario, and his wife are staying in a rented room in Casuntingan, Mandaue City.

Felimario is a security guard at the Maria Luisa Estate in Banilad, while his wife works at Metroware Inc. at the Mactan Export Processing Zone. He said they go home to Naga every two weeks.

SPO4 George Canamon of the Naga police said his initial investigation showed that the killers could have gained entry into the victims’ house through the kitchen door. They then went to the bedroom where the victims were sleeping, and dragged the old woman and the young girl to the living room where they repeatedly stabbed and hacked them.

Felimario believes the killers could have passed either through the main door or the window, which are both made of plywood.

However, he said it was possible the suspects gained entry through the main door because its lock was broken and that one could just easily push it open.

Felimario said he went home to Naga Saturday morning to stay with his mother and daughter for the weekend.

On his way home, he said he saw their neighbors carrying two bodies, only to find they were his mother’s and daughter’s.

The bodies were discovered by a neighbor, Joy Omandak, 25, who went over to the Chuas’ yard to ask permission from Morita if she could pick malunggay stalks in their yard.

She said she called out Morita’s name but nobody answered. She then looked inside the house through an open window and saw the bloodied bodies of the old woman and the young girl sprawled on the floor.

Another neighbor, Jenny Laran, 40, told Felimario that sometime last October, Morita reportedly saw a man stealing a neighbor’s cow.

Morita told neighbors that the cattle rustler passed in front of her house, dragging along the cow. She, however, reportedly told her neighbors that she did not know the person.

Felimario, however, said it could just be a plain and simple case of robbery because some kitchenware, which he said were gifts during his 1994 wedding, and 10 to 15 kilos of rice were missing. — Freeman News Service