Calls for justice for murdered accountancy student mount

LAPU-LAPU CITY – Calls for justice and the restoration of the death penalty are mounting over the killing of Karen Kaye Montebon, a day after the 17-year-old University of San Carlos accountancy student was found dead under her bed.

There are indications that Montebon, who was found lifeless when his father, James, arrived home from work Wednesday afternoon, had been raped then mauled to death by a still unidentified assailant.

Montebon’s body was found slumped on the floor under her bed at the family’s house in Corinthians Subdivision, this city. The wire of a hair blower was tied around her wrists.

Police Chief Insp. Zenaido Pastorfide, chief of the Homicide Division of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office, said the crime could have taken place between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. when Montebon was left alone in the house while her father, an electrician, and mother were out working. The victim’s only sibling, 21-year-old Diane, was also out of the house when the crime took place.

Pastorfide said there were signs that the victim had struggled to stay alive but the assailant mauled her to death. The victim’s iPad and DSLR camera were missing, prompting investigators to initially suspect that the crime committed was robbery and homicide.

However, physicians at the Mactan Doctor’s hospital confirmed that she was raped. Her underwear was found stained by blood.

People, including friends and schoolmates of the victim went on social media calling for justice for the death of Montebon. Some even urged that the death penalty be restored in the country.

To date, police still remained clueless about the identity of the suspect. Pastorfide, however, said a pair of slippers not belonging to any members of the victim’s family were recovered from the crime scene.

Meanwhile, four people including three teenagers were killed on the spot after the motorcycle they were riding crashed into a fallen mango tree on the national road in Barangay Hortaleza, Tuburan town Wednesday night.

The four fatalities were on their way home to Asturias town past 11 a.m. Wednesday when the driver failed to notice that a huge mango tree had blocked the road, the police said.

PO3 Pablo Arnoco said the four fatalities along with relatives and friends had just been to a spring in Tuburan town for night swimming. Another group onboard a separate motorcycle also crashed into the mango tree. Two persons from that group were injured.

Arnoco said the huge mango tree fell on the road due to heavy downpour that battered the town Wednesday. The area was also dimly lit, he added.

The four fatalities, including three 18-year-old men, died on the spot. The two injured persons onboard a separate motorcycle were rushed to a community hospital.