Dead woman in refrigerator identified

Victim’s partner tagged as person of interest

MANILA, Philippines — Police have identified the dead woman found in a refrigerator in an apartment in Rodriguez, Rizal, and tagged her partner as a person of interest in the case.

The woman, whose name is withheld by authorities, was positively identified by her father, who went to the police station after seeing her picture on social media.

Earlier, the Rodriguez police posted the victim’s photograph on Facebook, hoping she would be identified.

The woman’s father showed police an identification card of the victim, and identified her boyfriend.

“The person of interest has an arrest warrant for serious illegal detention,” Col. Allen Rae Co, spokesman for the Philippine National Police, told journalists at a briefing at Camp Crame yesterday.

Co said a manhunt is underway for the partner of the victim.

Police said the woman was also facing charges of serious illegal detention and had posted bail for her temporary liberty.

Co said the couple went to Rizal supposedly to start a new life, but the man apparently had other plans.

Citing information provided by the victim’s father, Co said the woman was carrying a large sum of money when she and her partner went to Rizal.

“Possibly, they quarreled over money, which resulted in the killing,” Co said.

Authorities said the victim, who bore strangulation marks, had been dead for six to seven days before she was found by the owner of the apartment.

Probers expressed belief  that the man placed the victim in the refrigerator to delay the process of decomposition, allowing him more time to escape.

Before the woman’s father went to the police station, probers visited an address in Taguig stated on the IDs of the victim and her partner that were recovered in the apartment.

However, they did not obtain information as the address and the names on the IDs were fake.