A 17-year-old girl was brutally murdered before having her face cut off while walking home from church in Lapu-Lapu City.

Police are now hunting three men for the gruesome killing of Christine Lee Silawan whose mutilated body was discovered dumped on a vacant lot this morning (Monday, March 11).

Chief of Lapu-Lapu City Police Office Senior Superintendent Lemuel Obon said: “We have witnesses who said three men were seen with the victim. We are now tracing their whereabouts.”

He added that, according to the witness, one of the suspects held Christine down, the other stabbed her, while the third skinned her face.

Grade nine student Christine had failed to return home yesterday evening after 6pm mass.

The Mactan High School pupil regularly served as a collector in the nearby Sacred Heart Parish Church in Pajac.

Parish secretary, Rosana Rondina, told the Cebu Daily News that Christine was last seen with an altar boy after the service.

He asked her to wait outside the church while he went to the bathroom. When he returned, Christine was nowhere to be seen and he assumed she had left without him.

This morning, the police received a report about the body of a young woman dumped on a vacant lot in Bangkal.

The police then informed the girl’s mother who identified her by her clothing.

The girl’s face had been skinned to the bones, exposing part of her skull. There were also 20 stab wounds on her body, including nine “defensive” injuries, suggesting that she had attempted to fight off her attackers.

She was naked from the waist down. Police are yet to confirm whether she was raped.

Police believe the perpetrators were under the influence of illegal drugs due to the senseless brutality of the crime.

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