Radioman Reynante Cortes was shot dead outside the radio station where he worked on July 22. CDN Digital Photo | Paul Lauro #CDNDigital
CEBU CITY, Philippines —Police are still trying to find clues that might lead them to the killer of the late radio blocktimer Reynante Cortes after the result of the autopsy on the victim’s body also baffled investigators.
Police Colonel Josefino Ligan, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) chief, said that they still need to clarfiy the results of the autopsy considering that there were two entry wounds with separate trajectories while the ballistician only found one bullet inside Reynante Cortes’ body.
Cortes was gunned down last July 22, 2021 in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City.
Ligan said that they needed clarification about the autopsy results, but the ballistician was not present during the July 29, meeting of the Special Investigation Task Group — the team of policemen tasked to solving the killing of Cortes.
“Kung usa ra ka bala ang nisulod, how come ang trajectory lain-lain? naay downward, naay upward? The theory nga nag split ang bala, is most likely,” he said.
(If there is only one bullet, how come the trajectory were different? There is a downward one and there is an upward one? The theory we have though is that the bullet might have split, which was the most likely explanation.)
Ligan also said that based on the autopsy presented, Cortes had two entry wounds one in his left arm with an upward trajectory and the other one in his left chest with a downward trajectory.
He said the bullet might have split into two but they had to verify this theory yet.
He also described the bullet found in the body of the victim as that from a 5.56 high-powered long firearm.
But he said that they also would have to clarify that with the ballistician.
Aside from that witnesses in the area told police that they only heard one shot when Cortes was gunned down.
Meanwhile, Ligan said they continued to check on the security cameras in the nearby establishments in the area because the security camera of the radio station had no footage of the shooting that would shed light on the identity of the killer.
“Atoang mga imbistigador, niadto sa crime scene balik. Gibutang nila ilang kaugalingon sa position sa biktima, gilantaw nila. nag kuha silag mga anggulo kung asa possibleng gikan ang origin sa buto,” he said.
(Our investigators went to the crime scene again. And tried to determine where the shooter shot the victim by putting themselves on the position where the victim was when he was shot.)
As for the persons of interest, Ligan said they still continued to investigate them to gather more information about the incident.
However, he clarified that persons of interest were not suspects, and that they were a list of names who had had a personal conflict with the victim or those who were subjects to his radio program.
He also said that the family had turned over the phone of Cortes to the police hoping that they could extract information from it that might help in the case.
He said the cellphone was now in the Anti-Cybercrime unit in the region.
Aside from the that, the wife had also coordinated with the police in the investigation.
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