BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Post mortem findings of a government doctor and the initial police probe on the decapitated body and severed head of a pimp in the neighboring city of Talisay tend to indicate that his head was not cut off cleanly and quickly.
“That is possible,” Dan Oliver Salazar, a police lieutenant, told DNX when asked if Mario Demetrio was beheaded slowly using a knife.
Salazar, administration deputy chief of that city seven kilometers from here, said the findings all tend to show that Demetrio’s head was not hacked off cleanly with a machete or a similar blade.
He added the initial findings point to the fact that the killing of Demetrio is a case of murder, a crime punishable with life imprisonment under Philippine laws.
Salazar added the post mortem examination of physician Joel Tan also showed Demetrio’s cause of death was “hypovolemic shock” secondary to decapitation.
This means Demetrio, 48, bled to death, Salazar said.
It is not yet known if Demetrio was killed in Sagrado Dos, a sugar plantation in Talisay’s Zone 16 village.
If it can be found in the probe that he was killed elsewhere and dumped only in Talisay, a joint investigation will be done by the police offices of Talisay and this city as the murder of Demetrio becomes a case that crosses borders and a continuing crime.
Demetrio has been linked to the death of Lilia (not her real name), a prostitute whose body was found early this month near a busy highway.
Police believe Demetrio is a key witness to Lilia’s murder as he could have seen her last client and possible killer.
