Missing student found dead, raped in Bacolod

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Four days after she went missing, a 19-year old college student was found dead in a sugarcane field Thursday evening, May 14, after she was allegedly raped by a tricycle driver in Barangay Estefania, this city. 

Police identified the victim as Shella Condes of Fortune Towne in the said village.

The victim was naked and tied up when she was discovered at the sugarcane field, which is 500 meters away from the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office.

Senior Inspector Benedicto Villarias, chief of Bacolod Police Station 4, said that the victim, who was alone on the road and waiting for a tricycle, was supposed to go to her friend in Barangay Villamonte on Sunday, 11 pm. However, she wasn’t able to get there.

The victim’s family reported her missing on Monday.

Villarias said the suspect, tricycle driver Ricardo “Badong” Ewayan, 34, fled his residence in Barangay Estefania on Monday. Probers were told he had left for Cebu City, where he got a job.

However, authorities caught up with him in Barangay 3 in Himamaylan City, also in Negros Occidental, Thursday lunch time. The suspect tried to resist arrest when they recovered the victim’s cellphone from him, but was later pacified.

The suspect confessed to have committed the crime and led the authorities to the body.

The suspect, according to Villarias, said that he punched the victim and hit her head with a rock.

Villarias said that the suspect, who is now detained at Police Station 4, will face charges of rape and robbery with homicide. The suspect will be subject to a drug test Friday, May 15. – Rappler.com