CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna – Police have intensified their investigation into the rape-slay of a 20-year-old university coed whose body was found floating in the Laguna Lake in Calamba City last March 3.
Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., Laguna police director, ordered the Calamba and provincial office to thoroughly look into the case of Trinidad Elauria, a resident of Barangay San Juan, Calamba City and a Bachelor of Science in Education senior at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
Elauria’s family last saw her alive when she sought her mother’s permission to go out with her classmates at about 4:30 p.m. last March 2.
“Akala ko magse-celebrate lang sila ng kanyang mga kaklase matapos silang mag-defend ng kanilang thesis (I thought she and her classmates would just celebrate after defending their thesis),” Elauria’s mother told police investigator SPO4 Filipina Manaig.
Elauria failed to return home that day, prompting her parents and relatives to look for her in her friends’ houses. They also reported her disappearance to the police.
The next day at about 7 a.m., the Calamba police got a call from a fisherman, a certain Ricardo Tolentino, about the body of a half-naked woman fished out in the Laguna Lake in Barangay Looc.
Investigators immediately contacted Elauria’s parents who positively identified the body to be their daughter’s.
Elauria had multiple stab wounds and had no underwear.
A medical examination by Superintendent Roy Camarillo of the crime laboratory of the Region 4 police showed that the coed’s private parts had lacerations and traces of sperm, indicating that she was raped.
Further investigation showed that Elauria could have had a planned meeting with her new male textmate named “JM,” who was reportedly introduced to her by her former boyfriend, a certain Niño.
Police suspect that Elauria decided to go to Barangay Looc where JM reportedly lives. Unfamiliar with the place, she asked her former boyfriend for directions to JM’s house through text messages, probers said.
It was not yet clear, however, if Elauria and JM met that night.
Probers are now investigating Elauria’s former boyfriend, JM and a certain Anton who could have participated or have knowledge of the crime.