Reinvestigation of Augusto, Dulguime case urged

Eternal rest seems to continue to elude Cherry Basalo Augusto and her alleged lover, police officer Clementino Dulguime Jr.

The police regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group was formally ordered yesterday to reopen the investigation into their deaths last Oct. 3.

Dulguime allegedly shot dead Cherry, wife of cellphone dealer Zandro Augusto, before turning the gun on himself inside an apartment of Cherry’s sister in Lapu-Lapu City.

The incident happened on the day Cherry decided to withdraw a case of immorality and grave misconduct she had filed against assistant Cebu City prosecutor Mary Ann Castro, whom she earlier claimed she caught inside a motel with her husband Zandro.

Superintendent Augusto Marquez, chief of the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division, said there is a need to reopen the case and ordered the CIDG to take the lead in the reinvestigation.

Marquez decided to reopen the case after he was dissatisfied with the way an earlier investigation was conducted on Noraden Ruiz, Cherry’s maid. To Marquez, the maid’s account was not comprehensive enough because it failed to account for what happened from the time Dulguime tried to see Cherry at the apartment at about 10 a.m. on Oct. 3.

Dulguime allegedly arrived with copies of the day’s papers headlining Cherry’s withdrawal of charges against Castro. Witnesses had seen Dulguime restlessly pacing outside the apartment.

Cherry and Ruiz were about to leave the apartment at about 1:30 p.m. when Dulguime allegedly accosted Cherry and shot her in the head.

Marquez said the circumstances that occurred since the time Dulguime arrived are relevant to establish a motive for the killing.

He said there is also a need to seriously look into the report of the National Bureau of Investigation of the Caraga Region where Cherry was buried that the gun used in the killing might have been different from the .38 caliber revolver of Dulguime.

The autopsy conducted by the NBI in Caraga should also be scrutinized because it found new evidence that may prove a third party was possibly involved, Marquez said. – Freeman News Service