A mutilated head of a woman was recovered inside a lunch box found floating in the Pasig River in Mandaluyong City on Monday.
Bigonio Balatera, a Bantay Bayan member, saw a blue lunch box floating in the river along Mabini J. Rizal Plaza at around 3 p.m.
Out of curiosity, Balatera opened the lunch box and was surprised to discover a woman’s head.
He immediately reported the mutilated head to his fellow barangay officials, who in turn called up the local police.
Thinking that the recovered head could belong to the same woman whose mutilated torso was found in San Juan City last Sunday, Mandaluyong City police chief Senior Superintendent Ericson Velasquez coordinated with San Juan police chief Superintendent Rodelio Jocson. They decided to bring the two body parts to a single funeral parlor for easy disposition.
Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) of the Eastern Police District (EPD) are now cross-matching the severed head with the mutilated torso.
“The recovered head and torso are still in a funeral parlor in Mandaluyong City. There’s no claimant yet,” said Jocson.
Velasquez said someone went to his office yesterday to report a missing relative and he directed him to visit the funeral parlor. The mutilated woman was not his relative, the man later said.
There were no identification marks except for a mole on the woman’s buttocks.
Among those recovered near the body was a pair of pants that bore the name Delia Rodriguez. — Non Alquitran