Manila - Philippine police have identified a suspect in the
death of the US Peace Corp volunteer who was killed in a mountainous
northern village, and hope to arrest the man as soon as a case is
filed against him, a regional spokesman said Friday.
Superintendent Joseph Adnol said the man is a resident of Batad
village in Banaue town in Ifugao province, 290 kilometres north of
Manila, where the body of 40-year-old Julia Campbell was recovered
two days ago.
Adnol did not disclose the name of the man, but said investigators
have positively identified him based on the account of several
witnesses.
'We already identified him but we could not arrest him until an
arrest warrant has been issued,' Adnol, who earlier reported that a
suspect had already been taken into police custody, said. 'If the
case would be filed today, maybe we could arrest him already.'
'Police in Banaue already have an idea where we can find the
suspect but we are withholding that information in order not to
bungle the investigation,' he added.
Campbell, who was vacationing in the area famous for its rice
terraces, went missing on April 8.
According to an initial investigation, Campbell had planned to go
to the famed Ifugao rice terraces, where she was supposed to get a
massage. She had also arranged for a tour guide there, but she did
not reach the area.
Army troops recovered Campbell's decomposing body on Wednesday
from a shallow grave from which her feet protruded, raising
suspicions of foul play.
Investigators said the most probable theory in Campbell's death
was robbery.
Police Director General Oscar Calderon said a wooden club with
bloodstains were recovered near the house of the suspect.
'We recovered a piece of wood with bloodstains at the vicinity of
the suspect's home,' he told a local radio station. 'We believe that
this was the instrument used in hitting Julia.'
Campbell's body was flown to Manila Thursday, but forensic
examinations are not to start until US pathologists arrive to observe
the process, according to Superintendent Joselito Rodrigo, chief of
the national police's medico-legal division.
Campbell had been teaching at a college in the eastern city of
Legazpi since her arrival in the Philippines in March 2005. She had
been one of 137 Peace Corps volunteers currently in the Philippines.
The US embassy said more than 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers have
served in the Philippines since 1961, making it the second oldest
Peace Corps programme in the world.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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