Unless there’s a late-breaking development or the police uncovers a solid lead, the murder of human resources manager Agnelen Uy may remain unsolved for some time.
The woman was found dead inside the family’s green Picanto sedan, tied up and with a gunshot wound on the back of her head. Her businessman husband, Wayne Christopher Uy, reported late to the police that she had been kidnapped by armed men on a motorbike. He came forward three hours after.
While the spouse is not detained, he’s classified as a “person of interest” as the last one who saw the woman alive.
He had left her in the company of the alleged kidnappers. By his account, they stopped the vehicle, forced him out and drove off with his wife.
If robbery was the motive, it didn’t show. The victim had her cellphone, and jewelry intact.
Details of the the couple’s personal lives were bound to surface. Police records show that the husband had twice filed reports in the station after violent fights with his wife whom he suspected was having an illicit affair.
The bitter relationship may be a key to solving the crime. The husband was released to his lawyer.
Regardless of who was at fault, what matter is that Agnelen was brutally murdered, and the mastermind and his accomplices have to be brought to justice.
This was obviously not a case of random violence by strangers.
We hope law enforcers don’t drag their feet on this one, like the still unsolved fatal shooting of lawyer Amelie Alegre, who also died in her car.
Alegre was gunned down by two motorcycle-riding assailants in Mandaue City last August.
Progress in the case has ground to a halt.
She was in the company of a fellow lawyer, whose influence includes being former city administrator of Mandaue City and past president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu city chapter.
But strangely, there’s been no urgency in tracking down the gunmen or what Mandaue police said was a good lead on the identity of the mastermind.
Again, the victim’s broken marriage was raised as a compelling motive for an attack. Alegre’s husband had filed a petition for annulment of marriage and been involved in a car “accident” where
Alegre was on the road and struck by the moving vehicle.
If Amelie and Agnelen had been indigent, killed by similarly dirt-poor husbands, the police would have lost no time in arresting the spouses and locked them behind bars, their fates uncertain.
But when circumstances involve lawyers or parties who have the means to hire a lawyer, expect a lot of procedural delays born out of a need for due process. The police become extra-careful.
Despite these odds, the police, with support from the community and local government, should speedily resolve these murders and bring the perpetrators to justice.
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