Dumaguete PNP: No suspect yet in rape-slay of 8-year-old girl

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Just a little over a month after 8-year-old Catherine Sinuag was raped and murdered and her body dumped in a sugarcane field at an outskirts village in this city, police investigators are still scrambling until today to identify and arrest the suspect.

Superintendent James Goforth, City Police chief, on Tuesday admitted that there was still no report from the PNP Crime Lab about the DNA tests on the blood samples and hair specimens recovered from the crime scene and taken from some "persons of interest" for cross-matching procedure.

Until the results of the lab test are out, investigators have nothing in their hands to make any arrests, even as some persons were earlier invited for questioning after the crime last month.

Goforth said forensic experts based in Cebu City, who were earlier given P30,000 by the city government to hand carry the evidences to the PNP Crime Lab in Camp Crame, Quezon City, have not submitted any report to him yet.

He could not ascertain when the two experts left Cebu but he believed the evidences were already been transported to Camp Crame. He lamented however that, due to the many cases handled by the Crime Lab, it might take a little longer for the results of the DNA tests to come out.

Goforth disclosed that his men were still working on the case but could not give any specific development.  — (FREEMAN)