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AUTHORITIES found the body of a US Peace Corps volunteer
reported missing more than a week ago in Ifugao.
Maj.
Gen. Rodrigo Maclang, commander of the Army 5th Infantry
Battalion said Julia Campbell, 40, a Caucasian, was
found at the vicinity of barangay Batad in Banaue at
around
10:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
In a
separate report, the Cordillera Administrative Region
police said Army elements and search and rescue teams
from the CAR police and K9 dogs discovered Campbell’s
body in a shallow grave in Batad, one of the 19
barangays in Banaue.
Campbell
was last seen on April 8, the day she reportedly told
friends that she will go on a hiking trip in Banaue. She
was also reportedly scheduled to go back to Manila the
following day.
A former
journalist, Campbell, of
Fairfax,
Virginia,
has been in the country since 2005 and has been working
as a teacher at a college in Legaspi City. The military
and the police said that to make sure that the body
found was Campbell’s, it will be subjected to forensic
and pathology tests.
The
police are exploring a theory that
Campbell
was killed. “The motive is still undetermined but crime
cannot be discounted, such as robbery and rape. This
will still be determined by SOCO and the autopsy
report,” the CAR police said in a statement.
The
police earlier played down speculations that Campbell
was abducted by the communist New People’s Army, saying
NPAs don’t operate in the area. The US Embassy in Manila
had offered a $10,000 reward for any information on
Campbell.
Malacañang on Wednesday expressed its sympathies for the
death of Campbell and hoped there was no foul play in
her death. (With M. Gonzalez) |
