A police major assigned in Batangas and three civilians are now facing criminal charges in connection with the disappearance of a beauty pageant candidate, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Monday, Nov, 13.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said a case of kidnapping and serious illegal detention was already referred to a local prosecutor’s office against Police Maj. Allan De Castro, civilian Jeffrey Magpantay and two other unidentified men in connection with the disappearance of Catherine Camilon.
Fajardo explained that while two witnesses have already surfaced and claimed to have seen a bloodied body being carried out of a red car, there is no confirmation yet on whether or not Camilon was killed.
“Probably some of you might be asking why kidnapping and serious illegal detention were only filed. It’s because police have not seen anything, especially the corpus delicti to determine if she is still alive or not,” said Fajardo.
But she said police could still file additional charges as the investigation goes on.
Camilon was reported missing on Oct. 12 and her friend said she was supposed to meet someone who later turned out to be de Castro.
Magpantay, on the other hand, was identified by the two witnesses as one of the persons whom they saw transferring a bloodied body from a Nissan Juke owned by the victim to a red Honda CRV.
The Honda CRV was already recovered by the police and based on the background investigation with the help of the Land Transportation Office, the car was not linked to any criminal activity in the past.
But during the processing, Fajardo said forensics investigators were able to collect hair strands and possible blood stains.
The hair strands and the possible blood stains corroborate the testimony of the two witnesses who earlier went to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to shed light on the incident.
“Our CIDG operatives are now coordinating with the family to get DNA samples that would be compared to the collected hair strands and possible blood stains.