Female air traffic controller slain

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union — A female air traffic controller was found sprawled dead with a stab wound in the back near the airport terminal here yesterday afternoon.

Police found the murder weapon, a 12-inch kitchen knife, stuck in a tree in the vicinity of the control tower.

Investigation showed that the victim, Carolyn Cham, 45, was attacked while on duty at the third floor of the control tower. Though wounded, she managed to get down the tower and run toward the airport terminal, probably to seek help.

A utility worker found her body at about 3:30 p.m. Probers believe she was killed at about noon.

Police have taken another employee, a certain Leonardo de Guzman, 55, for questioning.

A torn leaf of a calendar used to wrap the knife’s blade matched with another torn piece, which probers later found at his residence. De Guzman’s name was also written on the knife-wrap.

But De Guzman said his adopted daughter, Jolea, who he said is mentally retarded and hearing-impaired, could have committed the crime.

Jolea, he said, told him that she would go up the tower to take a bath. Jolea is now being tracked down. – Vic Alhambra Jr.