COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Villagers recovered a 13-year-old girl's cadaver from a river in North Cotabato's Magpet town on Tuesday.
Senior Inspector Elias Colonia, chief of the Magpet municipal police, said the victim identified as Carmela Salundag appeared to have been raped before being hit in the head with a blunt object.
Salundag was found by neighbors floating in a shallow portion of the river in Barangay Bangkal.
Colonia said that Salundag was reported abducted by two men in Barangay Ilian, also in Magpet town, while on her way from school on Monday.
Villagers launched a search for Salundag after she failed to return home by nightfall.
Salundag’s father, David, has called on the local police to intensify its efforts to identify the girl's killers.
Colonia said the victim could have been raped in a farm not far from the spot where she was snatched.
He said the suspects struck the victim’s head with either a rock or a piece of wood and dumped her lifeless body into the river.