CEBU CITY, Philippines — The lifeless body of an 16-year-old girl was found in an empty lot in Sitio Mahayahay in Barangay Bangkal, Lapu-Lapu City, on Monday morning, March 11, 2019.

According to Police Officer 1 Lyno Pino, the desk officer of the Homicide section of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office, told Cebu Daily News Digital in a phone interview that the girl was found half naked, lying lifeless in an empty lot with half of her face skinned.

Police Officer 3 Dan Gacosgacos, the main investigator of the case, identified the girl as Christine Lee Silawan, a resident of barangay Mactan in Lapu-Lapu City who served as a collector in the nearby Sacred Heart Parish Church in the neighboring Barangay of Pajac.

Pino, quoting Gacosgacos, who was on the field, said that the girl, a Grade 9 student at the Maribago National High School, served in the 6 p.m. mass on Sunday then went missing after. She was found Monday morning in a 2-hectare property that was 500 meters away from the closest residential area.

He said that the they are now looking at the closed-circuit television of the church to see who Silawan was with before her death.

The body of Silawan was claimed by her mother. She positively identified the body as her daughter, whom, she told the police, did not return home after serving in the mass on Sunday evening.

Pino said that motive of the killing have yet to be established pending investigation. /bmjo