Girl, 9, missing for 12 days, found dead in Cavite

A 9-year-old girl who went missing on Christmas Day last year was found dead last Saturday, Jan. 5, in Dasmariñas City in Cavite province. Police said she was raped by four men, one of them a minor, who have been taken into custody. The body of rape victim Zosimae Magluyan was found under a house in Brgy. San Lorenzo II, about 10 to 15 meters away from her residence, PO1 Ellaine Magsino of the Dasmariñas police told GMA News Online on Friday. Magluyan had been reported missing at about 6 p.m. on Christmas Day, Magsino said. Authorities have filed rape with homicide charges against Rodel Cubian, 23; Ryan Delequeña, 25; and Jayson Cubian, 20. Another suspect, a 15-year-old minor, was turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Cavite, according to Magsino.

 

One of the four suspects, Rodel Cubian, was a family friend of the victim, she said. Citing the testimony from an eyewitness, Magsino said Rodel was seen taking away Magluyan near the victim's house at about 11 a.m. on the day she disappeared. The three other suspects later joined Rodel and brought the victim to the area where her body was found 12 days later. The four men had been drinking alcohol when they took the child, Magsino said.  

At first, the witness thought nothing of the incident because he knew Rodel was a friend of the child's family, the police officer said. When reports about the missing girl spread in the neighborhood, however, the witness eventually informed police about what he saw after being bothered by his conscience.

 

The suspects were arrested Wednesday, shortly after admitting to village officials the crime that they had committed.   

Magsino said the suspects confessed that they had raped the child at least three times until the victim died on Jan. 2, or three days before she was found. During the period of the girl's confinement, there were days when the suspects did not go the area where she was being kept, Magsino said. The exact date and cause of Magluyan's death have yet to be established as the police are still waiting for the report from the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) regarding the matter, she added.

 

According to initial information from SOCO, however, the girl had been dead for around three to four days when her body was found on January 5, matching the statement of the suspects that she died on January 2, the police officer said.

 

Two scavengers found the body of Magluyan half-buried near a trash dump on January 5, Magsino said.

 

The girl's mother rushed to the scene when word of the discovery got around, police said. She found her daughter’s slipper along the way and positively identified the body when she saw the watch and bracelet the child was wearing when she was last seen, Magsino said. — RSJ/YA, GMA News