CEBU CITY – Police have launched a region-wide manhunt operation against the suspect in the rape and murder of a Grade 12 student in Toledo City, Cebu.
The suspect was identified as Lorben Cabugsan.
Police Brig. Gen. Anthony Aberin, chief of the Police Regional Office-Central Visayas (PRO-7), condemned the killing of 18-year-old Mae Fatima Tagactac, a resident of Barangay Mainggit, Toledo City, who was found lifeless inside a room of a lodging house in Barangay Poblacion, Toledo City on Friday, September 20.
“As of now, we have a region-wide coordinated manhunt operation so could we arrest the suspect,” said Police Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of Aberin.
All exit points in Cebu were monitored and all police stations in the province were provided with the suspect’s photo.
Pelare assured the immediate arrest of the suspect as he was captured by security camera as the male companion of the victim as they checked into the lodge.
In an interview with local radio station dyHP, the victim’s brother, Jelvin, said that her sister left home on Thursday noon to join a dance practice with her classmates.
Jelvin said they were not aware that the victim left to meet a man whom he met on Facebook.
He said they started to worry when she failed to return home. Her classmates were contacted but they disclosed that they did not have a scheduled practice on that day.
Mae was found dead in the lodging house at around 8 a.m. Her body was discovered when an attendant knocked on the door to remind guests of their check-out time.
The attendant forcibly opened the door when no one responded and found her wrapped in a blanket with her mouth tied with a handkerchief.