About 10 hours after concerned motorists reported the headless corpses in a vacant lot in Cresta Verda Subdivision, Barangay Sta. Monica at around 10 p.m. Monday, a woman claimed one of the victims was her son whom she identified as Kenneth Wong Asania, 16.
Eleonor Asania, of 266 Sto. Domingo St., Barangay Holy Spirit, also in Novaliches, recognized her son through a scar on his left foot.
The bodies of the younger Asania and the two other unidentified victims were brought to Prudential Funeral Homes in Sampaloc, Manila.
The elder Asania said her only child graduated with honors from the New Era High School last March. She told probers that the last time she saw her son was on April 5 when he asked permission from her to go to his school to get his report card. However, the boy never returned.
Of the possible angles behind the killings, Chief Inspector Rodolfo Jaraza, chief of the Central Police District-Criminal Investigation Division (CPD-CID) said they are pursuing the possibility that a fraternity outside the boy’s school could have resorted to killing Asania when the victim refused to join them.
Jaraza noted that a background check with Asania’s school revealed that the boy had good moral character and had ranked fifth in his class’ honor roll.
"Since fraternities are strictly prohibited in New Era and since the boy had good school records, the only thing we are pursuing now is that a fraternity outside the school did the killing," Jaraza added.
Jaraza, however, declined to name the group suspected to be behind the brutal slayings pending follow-up operations for the arrest of the killers.
Jaraza told The STAR that they are also looking into reports that the younger Asania had a "fight" with a group of Mindanao natives, which could have triggered the killing.
The CID chief said five police teams were dispatched to Tandang Sora and Culiat in Quezon City and Quiapo in Manila to monitor movements of the members of the Mindanaoan group, mostly Muslims, with whom the boy had an altercation.
Although the two other victims remained unidentified, Jaraza expressed belief that there was only one motive behind the gruesome killings.
Jaraza said they are now trying to identify the two other victims, aged about 15 to 18 years old, "because their identities would help investigators trace their killers."
Police said the victims’ bodies, found about five meters from each other, were discovered in the grassy area of Cresta Verde Subdivision.
Jaraza noted the victims could have been killed somewhere else and dumped in the subdivision because there was no sign of struggle where they were found.