CEBU CITY – The Police Regional Office-Central Visayas (PRO-7) “condemned to the highest degree” the brutal killing of a 19-year-old woman from Panabo City, Davao del Norte.
TOCMO (FB) Police Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of Police Brig. Gen. Anthony Aberin, chief of PRO-7, said investigators are leaving no stone unturned to solve the gruesome killing of Rhea Mae Tocmo. Tocmo’s body was dumped by the road in Barangay Tisa here on Monday afternoon, July 18. The woman’s remains were stuffed in a box. Her hands were tied and her face was beyond recognition. “We are very sad about this incident. The PRO-7 condemns to the highest degree this kind of a crime committed within Central Visayas. The instruction of our regional director to the Cebu City Police Office is to make sure we conduct a thorough investigation, identify the suspects, and file the appropriate charges,” Pelare said. Tocmo was identified by her uncle Rogelio Batoy, who said his niece went to Cebu to look for work without informing her parents. Before leaving for Cebu, the woman was reportedly scolded by her parents for not going home for two days. Batoy said they didn’t know that his niece was in Cebu until they learned that the dead person found in Tisa was her. Pelare said investigators from the Labangon Police Station are checking “sensitive” information that may help identify the woman’s killers. It was learned that the victim stayed in a boarding house in Barangay Looc, Mandaue City. She reportedly left her boarding house around 4 a.m. on Sunday, July 16. Pelare said investigators are backtracking from the time the she left the boarding house. Investigators are hoping that there will be security camera footage that will show the last person she met before she was found dead, Pelare said. Police are suspecting that she was killed somewhere before her body was dumped in Tisa. Pelare described the gruesome killing as an isolated case and will not affect the peace and order in Region 7.