ILOILO – A 16-year-old Grade 10 female student was stabbed to death inside her house on Serrano Extension Street, Zacarias Subdivision, Cabatuan, Iloilo on the eve of Valentine’s Day.
Marilou Mayormente found Ariza Marie, her only child, dead in the teenager’s bedroom around 5:45 a.m. yesterday.
Ariza Marie was last seen alive by her father around 9 p.m. in their house. He left her alone as he had to help wife Marilou close their eatery at the Cabatuan public market, according to Chief Inspector Sullen Domingo, municipal police chief.
The parents returned to the house from their carinderia around 10 p.m. and did not bother to check their daughter – whom they presumed was already sleeping in her bedroom – despite noticing that their house’s back door was ajar, said Domingo.
It was only the following morning that Marilou checked her daughter’s room, said the police chief. Ariza Marie, a student of Cabatuan National Comprehensive High School, was on the floor of the bedroom already dead.
The student may have been likely attacked on Wednesday night before her parents returned home, said Domingo.
Initial police investigation showed no signs of forcible entry into the Mayormente house. The killer may have been allowed to enter or knew where the Mayormentes were hiding the key of the main door outside, said Domingo.
The police chief said robbery appeared not to be the motive in the killing, too. All the valuables in the house were untouched.
According to investigators, the attacker may have tried to rape Ariza Marie but the student fought back.
The victim appeared to have “defense wounds” in her arms, said Domingo.
“Perhaps that night the attacker knew the victim was alone in the house,” he added.
As of this writing, the Cabatuan police had not named any suspect.
Probers invited for questioning Ariza Marie’s boyfriend yesterday then released him.
Darius Guijano, 19, said his girlfriend’s death shocked him. He told the police they were supposed to meet yesterday afternoon, Valentine’s Day, after her classes.
On Wednesday night, according to Guijano, he was at a cousin’s house watching a movie./PN
