Missing foreigner's remains dug up in ex-GF's frontyard

DAVAO CITY – A British-Australian national who had been missing for several days turned up dead, his body dug up last Wednesday afternoon in the frontyard of the rented house of his former girlfriend here.

Chief Superintendent Andres Caro II, Southern Mindanao police director, said combined elements of the city police and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group exhumed the remains of Phillip Andrew Aitken, 43, in the front lawn of the rented house of his former girlfriend, Corazon Donato, 30, at Guadalupe Village in Lanang this city.

Police dug up Aitken’s remains after Donato and her boyfriend, a certain April Quizan, owned up to the crime and told probers where they buried his body.

Aitken, said to be a mechanical engineer working for an American company in Dubai, reportedly had a four-year-old son with Donato, the custody of whom was often the cause of the couple’s fight.

Caro said Aitken was first reported missing last Nov. 1 when a certain Murray Philmore, owner of Red Light Garden Hotel, also in Guadalupe Village, got a call from the Australian embassy inquiring about Aitken’s whereabouts.

A private investigator hired by Aitken’s employer and Aitken’s brother Steve were the ones who initiated the effort to locate him, as he was supposed to have left the Philippines last Oct. 20.

Caro said investigation showed that Aitken checked in at the Grand Regal Hotel last Oct. 5 and checked out on Oct. 20 at around 5:30 p.m., as he was slated to take his flight to Manila.

But investigators found out that he did not take any of the flights from Davao City to Manila on Oct. 20 or in the following days.

Probers learned that Aitken went to see Philmore last Oct. 19 and had breakfast with his son who is studying at a Montessori school in nearby Nova Tierra Village.

Aitken reportedly told Philmore that he had broken up with Donato after he found out that she was allegedly stealing money from his bank account through his credit cards.

Aitken also reportedly confided to Philmore that he wanted to take custody of his four-year-old son and bring him to Australia the following day.

However, nothing more was heard from Aitken since then until Australian embassy officials started looking for him last Nov. 1.