CEBU CITY – Police on Tuesday, July 18, identified the woman whose body was stuffed in a box and dumped by the road in Barangay Tisa here on Monday, July 17. Police Major Angelito Valleser, chief of the Labangon Police Station, said the victim was identified as 19-year-old Rhea Mae Tocmo, a native of Panabo City, Davao del Norte. Tocmo was identified at Saint Francis Funeral Homes on N. Bacalso Ave. here by his uncle, Rogelio Batoy. The woman was identified through her tattoo and dental braces.
TOCMO (FB) Batoy said the victim was the daughter of her younger sister Melchora. The victim was the youngest in a brood of three. Batoy, a jeepney driver, said they were shocked to learn that the dead person found in Tisa was his niece as they did not know that she was in Cebu. He said Tocmo went to this city to look for work without asking permission from her parents. “She came to Cebu two months ago after she got scolded for not going home for two days. Maybe she felt bad that she was scolded and left without informing her parents,” Batoy said in Cebuano. Investigators are checking reports that the victim worked in a restaurant here. Tocmo was believed to have been tortured before she was killed. She was wrapped with a white blanket and her arms tied with a rubber and an aluminum wire. There were also indications that her face was bashed with a hard object or was burned. Batoy said her niece was supposed to go home this July 28 to attend a gathering. He said they need financial assistance to bring her body back to Panabo. Batoy urged the persons responsible for the gruesome killing to surrender. “I hope they will just surrender. There is no crime that will be kept forever. Authorities are working to track down the persons who did this and we are also appealing to the people who have information about the perpetrators to help us,” said Batoy.