BY GLAZYL MASCULINO
BACOLOD CITY – The wife of slain Cebu “drug kingpin” Jenifer Mercader was found buried at the back of a sugarcane field in Barangay San Miguel, La Carlota City last Wednesday.
Police said probers are trying to determine if the death of Mercader has something to do with the murder of his wife Juliet, 26, whose body was found two days after he was killed in a shootout with police in Murcia town.
Lt. Col. Jonel Guadalupe, city police chief, said Juliet, a native of Cebu, was identified on Thursday by her family’s friend whom they requested to take charge of the victim’s remains here.
Juliet’s lifeless body was discovered on Sept. 30 when a sugarcane worker, who was harvesting at that time in the area, saw a pit, Guadalupe said.
She was naked and had a gunshot wound in the head, the police chief added.
Police recovered the victim’s clothes and a wristwatch in the area.
Guadalupe said they also found footprints, an indication that the crime was committed by more than one or two persons.
Guadalupe said the victim might have been sexually molested and was probably left in the area since she was not a resident of the city.
He said Juliet was subjected to a post mortem examination and her remains will be transported to Cebu as requested by her family.
He said they were not sure if someone was going after Juliet after her husband’s death.
“We don’t have any lead on the identities of the perpetrators as of press time,” he added.
Jenifer, tagged as a “drug kingpin” in Cebu, was neutralized by joint operatives of Central and Western Visayas, after he allegedly resisted arrest during an operation in his house in Barangay Minoyan.
He was a former barangay captain of Lugo village, who escaped from Medellin District Jail in Cebu province last year.
