‘Slain woman’ turns up alive, but who was the one buried?

SAN PEDRO, Laguna — Police are at a quandary who the woman who was believed raped, killed and dumped in a grassy lot at the back of a gasoline station in Barangay Nueva here, really is.

This, after 18-year-old Roselle Rayos, who was earlier thought to be the slain woman, turned up alive in a videoke bar in Capalonga, Camarines Norte.

Earlier, Rayos was reported missing, and a woman and a homosexual were believed to have abducted her.

Last April 3, the woman’s decomposing body, which bore stab wounds, was found and Rayos’ mother identified it as her daughter’s. The reasons: the woman also had no front teeth and wore a blue bra and a pair of brown slippers.

But a week after the remains were buried at a public cemetery here, Rayos’ supposed kidnappers surfaced and told police that she was alive and working as a guest relations officer at a bar in Labo, Camarines Norte.

This became a puzzle for investigators. PO3 Oscar Alzona sought the assistance of Senior Superintendent Florencio Magundayao, Camarines Norte police director, to locate Rayos.

Initial efforts to track down Rayos proved futile, until she was finally located in Capalonga town, some 40 kilometers northeast of Labo.

Now that Rayos is reunited with her family, police are asking who the unidentified slain woman is.