The Philippines National Police [speaker-mute tab=”span”](PNP)[/speaker-mute] has sought permission to reopen an investigation into the death of Christine Dacera, a flight attendant for Philippines Airlines Express, who was found dead in the bathtub of her hotel room after New Years Eve celebrations with a group of friends in Manila.
A preliminary police report released shortly after the 23-year-old flight attendant’s death claimed that she had been found with scratches and bruises across her body, as well as “lacerations and sperm in her genitalia”.
Police investigators feared Christine had been brutally gang-raped and murdered and sought the arrest of 11 suspects, including a friend who found her lifeless body on News Year Day and performed CPR while waiting for an ambulance.
The local prosecutor closed the case, however, after an autopsy revealed that Christine had died of natural causes and murder was ruled out. Christine’s family had been seeking a second autopsy.
Now, the PNP say the case should be reopened “immediately” because the results from toxicology and semen analysis tests days after the local prosecutor had terminated the investigation.
“In order for justice to be completely served to all of the parties concerned, an immediate reopening of the case and complete admission of the attached pieces of evidence is just and lawful,” the PNP’s submission explained.
But lawyers representing some of the men who were implicated in Christine’s death have questioned the motives of the police and say the supposedly new evidence is simply “old” and “rehashed” information that they possessed all along.
The PNP claim that the toxicology tests found methamphetamine in Christine’s blood but lawyers say the presence of drugs has no bearing on the outcome of the case. They had previously urged Christine’s family to accept the results of the preliminary investigation.
Christine was described by Philippines Airlines Express as an “upstanding and professional” flight attendant “who will be sorely missed by her colleagues and friends.”
