Murder case vs prominent family in Samar dismissed

TACLOBAN CITY – The murder case filed against a prominent family in Catbalogan City was recently dismissed by the Department of Justice for lack of merit.

Dr. Leo Lofranco and his wife Grace were exonerated from the arson and murder charges filed against them last year after a cadaver was found among the debris of the burned Lester Lace Grocery here that they owned.

Police authorities had identified the victim as Janine Pauline, 16, who was reported missing after a fire gutted the grocery store on Nov. 14, 2006.

But in its resolution dated July 9, 2007, the DOJ ruled that the evidence presented by the the mother of the victim, Mary Jean Pauline, were not enough to pin down the Lofrancos.

Moreover, the arson case against the Lofrancos filed by the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) here was dismissed due to the improbability of the evidence  presented by the BFP and accordingly, will not make the case prosper in courts.

According to the findings of tate prosecutors assigned by the DOJ to handle the preliminary investigation of both the murder and arson cases against the Lofrancos, not even a single witness has positively identified any of the respondents as the killer of the deceased or that they had intentionally set on fire their store.

The findings also stated that there was seeming bias among all of the witnesses against the respondents, which led prosecutors to conclude that there was grand conspiracy­ between the complainant and the witnesses.  It was also established that the victim was still alive during the fire.