Woman eyed in Parañaque rape-slay case

The mystery in the grisly gang rape and murder of a 21-year-old female graduate of the De La Salle University in Parañaque City deepens.

This, after an informed source said that a woman could be among the suspects. According to the source, victim Claudine Mabel Feliciano, 21, was not wearing stockings at the time of her death and yet she was strangled to death with one.

"This could indicate that one of the suspects was a woman who could have been the one who flagged down the victim after she left Ayala Alabang Village," said the source.

Feliciano was found dead and naked last Sunday morning in a creek in Barangay San Antonio, Parañaque City. Police said she was raped and beaten before she was killed by the suspects.

She also sustained bruises in various parts of the body and a bullet wound in her right arm which indicate that she tried to resist the attacks.

Investigation showed that last Saturday night, Feliciano drove from her house at 227 Ferrari Drive, Camella Homes in Sucat, Parañaque City, to meet her friends Myra Dacanay and Tara Golez at the Ayala Alabang Town Center.

Feliciano later drove Dacanay to her house in Ayala Alabang Village. She failed to return home that night and her naked dead body was discovered the following day.

A source said the woman suspect could have been the one who flagged-down Feliciano’s car shortly after she left Ayala Alabang Village. The other male suspects could have followed in a van. The source said the victim could have been raped inside a van.

At about 11 a.m. last Tuesday, the victim’s Mazda sedan with plate number URN-855, was found abandoned along Lapu Lapu street in Magallanes Village, Makati City.

According to police, Felciano’s car was used by the suspects in the foiled abduction of Janet Balis, 25, at about 3 a.m. last Sunday. Police said four men aboard Feliciano’s car tried to abduct Balis near the Multinational Village in Parañaque City. Fortunately Balis managed to escape from the suspects by shouting for help and attracting patrolling tanods.

Sources said the suspects could have been high on drugs as evidenced by traces of vomit inside Feliciano’s car.

The sources added that the suspects could have been known to Feliciano and could have followed her from the Ayala Alabang Town Center to Ayala Alabang Village where they waited for her car to exit.

"Her car bore no traces of forced entry. Walang basag (there was nothing broken). Her attackers or at least one of her attackers could have been known to her. The suspects could have spotted her somewhere, a party perhaps," said a source.

As these developed, police sources said the suspects in the grisly rape-slay could be residents of Magallanes Village where Feliciano’s car was found abandoned last Tuesday morning.

The victim’s car was seen by residents being parked and abandoned along Lapu Lapu street shortly after the crime was committed. Last Monday, the car mysteriously disappeared and reappeared the following day in the same spot with its license plates already removed. – Mike Frialde