CEBU CITY, Philippines—One of the four bodies found buried on a lot in Sitio Bago, Barangay Cogon in Compostela town northern Cebu was identified by family members on Wednesday morning, October 7, 2020.
According to Police Captain Vincent Zozobrado, commander of the Compostela Police Station, the first body which was found and excavated on Tuesday, October 6, was that of Elmer Enanoria, 20, from Riverside, Barangay Bulacao Pardo, Cebu City.
Read: Police working to identify 4 bodies found buried in Compostela, Cebu
Enanoria’s body was positively identified by his sister, mother, and cousin, who went to the station after learning about the bodies.
Zozobrado said that the family was able to identify Enanorio because of the tattoos on his body.
It was said that Enanoria was last seen in their area last September 25, 2020 at around 6 p.m. and went missing since then.
Upon interviewing the family of Enanoria, the police learned that the he was jailed for an illegal drug case last May 7, 2019 and was released last May 12, 2020.
19 stab wounds
While Enanoria was being identified, the initial findings of the autopsy conducted was also revealed.
Zozobrado revealed that all the first three victims sustained multiple stab wounds on the different parts of their body, which may have caused their deaths.
Enanoria was found to have sustained 19 stab wounds while the second body was found with five stab wounds and the third body with nine stable wounds. Skeletal remains were what was left of the fourth body found in the shallow grave, which made it difficult for police to determine the cause of death.
All other three bodies have yet to be identified.
Read: Cebuanos with ‘missing’ relatives told to visit Compostela Police Station
With the current information on hand, Zozobrado said that they now believe the bodies were summarily executed and the motive may have been related to illegal drugs.
“Kay kaning ka Enanoria, ingun iyang mama bisan kuno pag gawas niya, mi gamit gihapon, unya gi sugo pa gani daw ni sa iyang amigo atong wala pa nawala nga mo palit og drugas. Siguro kani sila naka dispalko or mo hawa na sa grupo. Kana atoang lantawun,” said Zozobrado.
(The mother of Enanoria said when he was released from jail, he continued to use drugs and was also told by his friend to buy drugs before he went missing. It could be that they used drug money that wasn’t theirs or maybe they wanted to leave the group. That’s what we will be looking at.)
As of this writing, Zozobrado said that they are focusing on gathering more details about Enanoria that may help solve the case of the buried bodies.
/bmjo