“Someone else” may still be involved: Montebon case is closed, but...

CEBU, Philippines – Is the murder case of 17-year-old Karen Kaye Montebon closed or not?

The Special Investigation Task Group Montebon is still considering the possibility that there may still be other persons involved in the killing even as they have declared the case is already closed.

Senior Superintendent Rey Lyndon Lawas, the supervisor of the task group, said this possibly may surface depending on the review of the affidavits and the evidence gathered from the crime scene and submitted for crime laboratory examination.

“I’ve already said this even before, although the case was closed with the death of the primary suspect (Ruben Fernandez), we do not discount the possibility that there might be other evidence that might come up and pinpoint other persons,” said Lawas.

He said as of now the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 led by its acting chief, Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, is reviewing all the evidences, documents and testimonies of different witnesses, including the accounts of Fernandez’s live-in partner Jennalyn Soon.

“We will try to wait for his (Tayaba’s) review on the affidavits and what will be his recommendation,” he said.

Lawas also said they have yet to receive the result of the laboratory examination of the evidence they have submitted to the crime lab.

“Like the strands of hair we have extracted from the crime scene, we submitted it for crime laboratory examination and hopefully we can have the result and we can try to compare it with the other standards,” Lawas said.

He said if there will be other evidence that will point to somebody who may have been part of the crime, then they will talk with the Montebon family for the filing of case against that person.

In the afternoon last September 15 James Montebon, found his daughter already dead inside their house at Corinthians Subdivision, Lapu-Lapu City. Some of her personal belongings appeared to have been stolen.

Saying her conscience bothered her, Soon later went to police and said Fernandez had the missing items and was the one who killed Montebon.

Police then declared the case closed after Fernandez was gunned down last week by an unidentified man in Nasingin Islet, Getafe, Bohol, just few minutes before the police could arrive to arrest him.

However, an anti-crime group Crusade Against Violence questioned why the police were so quick to close the investigation into the crime and requested for a reinvestigation as they believe Soon was involved in the killing.

Lawas, however, said they cannot conduct a reinvestigation since another unit has to do the job, but they are reviewing the evidence and are waiting for the result of the crime laboratory examination.

He said they cannot yet tell if Soon is involved or not in the killing since there is not enough evidence that could point to her as Fernandez’s accomplice in the crime. But he also said they cannot discount that possibility.

Lawas added said they are willing to have a dialogue with CAV and are also willing to brief anybody who wants to know how the investigation is going.

Meanwhile, policemen are still facing a blank wall on who killed Fernandez.

Lawas insisted that the police have nothing to do with the suspect’s killing and that he even instructed the chief of police in Getafe, Bohol, to investigate who was responsible for Fernandez’s death.

“Because we do not condone this kind of act,” said Lawas. — /BRP (FREEMAN)