Coed’s rape-slay solved

MALOLOS, Bulacan — Police has solved the brutal rape and killing of a 17-year-old medical technology student with the arrest of four suspects in Guiguinto and Balagtas yesterday.

The arrest of the suspects, Ryan Gamboa, 18, Jayson Viola, 19, Joseph Silva, 18, followed the earlier arrest of Gabriel Prestosa, 15, in Barangay Tabe, Guiguinto.

Sr. Police Supt. Edgardo Acuna, Bulacan police director, said the four will be subjected to drug test to verify information provided to the police by some Guiguinto residents that they are allegedly drug users.

The victim, Rosalie Joy Sioson, 17, was found dead by residents near a fishpond in Barangay Bulihan, Plaridel last Saturday morning. Her head was smashed with a hard object and her face bore injuries.

Rudy Sioson, the girl’s father broke into a rage at the office of Acuna when he came face to face with the four, lunged at them but was restrained by Guiguinto police chief Senior Inspector Joselito Sta. Teresa, who has succeeded in holding the elder Sison’s hands together with a policeman.

The girl’s father emotionally narrated that Joy came from school Friday night and when she alighted from a cab along the MacArthur Highway in Barangay Tuktukan in Guiguinto she boarded a tricycle to take her home to Barangay Tabe. The tricycle driver who was joined by the three others brought her to Barangay Bulihan where she was gang-raped before she was killed.

The elder Sioson said that he was thankful for the police’s efforts that led to the immediate arrest of the suspects.

Sta. Teresa said the victim was hanged to a tree branch with the nylon belt of a bag when she was killed. — James Mananghaya