Police say ‘insane jealousy’ led teenager to murder and mutilate Christine

jealousy
Christine and the 17-year-old accused of murdering her.

Police believe that it was intense jealousy that led a 17-year-old boy to murder and horribly mutilate Lapu-Lapu schoolgirl Christine Silawan.

The 16-year-old was found stabbed to death with part of her face cut off — exposing her skull — and her tongue, oesophagus and trachea “meticulously removed” following a church service on Sunday, March 10.

“It was a crime of passion,” said Tomas Enrile, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director in Central Visayas said yesterday (Tuesday, March 19).

Although the teenager has admitted the crime, attempts to track down two alleged accomplices — named by the teenager — are continuing. 

The suspect was taken to the Lapu-Lapu City prosecutor’s office on Monday afternoon for the filing of the murder complaint.

He had been detained by the NBI in Cebu City since Saturday night when agents picked him up from his family home.

Armed with a warrant, the agents searched his house and found the shirt, shorts and ball cap that, they said, the boy wore when he picked up Christine on his motorcycle before she was killed. As we have previously reported, his movements were captured on CCTV footage.

NBI sources told the Inquirer that the boy had admitted the crime, saying jealousy drove him “insanely mad” that he was not able to think straight when he killed the Grade Nine student.

There has been no explanation given as to why he mutilated his victim’s body after stabbing her 30 times.

According to Enrile, the teenager and Christine had a relationship although it has not been established whether the two had already broken up. 

Speaking at a press conference at national police headquarters at Camp Crame, Senior Superintendent Bernard Banac said: “We can say now that the murder case is solved but not yet closed.”

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