No hints of suicide or foul play in chef's diary

MANILA, Philippines - The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) yesterday said the diary of a Mexican chef who was found dead at the Fontana Leisure Park in Angeles City, Pampanga last Dec. 26 does not contain evidence to determine whether she committed suicide or not.

CIDG director Chief Superintendent Raul Castañeda said the Spanish embassy has forwarded to his office the translation of the entries on the diary of Elisa Gutierrez, 25, which was among the items recovered from her room hours after she was found dead.

“Majority of what she wrote in her diary was related to her job. There is no entry giving any hint that she would end her life (or) that somebody wanted to kill her,” Castañeda said.

The CIDG chief also cleared a policeman in Gutierrez’s death because of her bad impression of him.

“The appointment yesterday was bad,” Gutierrez wrote in her diary, referring to the policeman. “This person is ugly, ugly, ugly, big stomach and smells strange… but this person no more (sic), don’t like him.”

Police initially declared that Gutierrez committed suicide but Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno ordered a reinvestigation upon the request of her family who refused to believe that she killed herself.

When found hanging from the metal brace on the ceiling, Gutierrez, a sous chef, had stab wounds in the neck, chest and abdomen, which the CIDG are now trying to determine whether they were self-inflicted or not. – Non Alquitran