The slaying of Christine Silawan was a savage crime that took place in 2019.
Christine Silawan, a teenage student, was sixteen years old when her lifeless body was discovered in an empty plot in Lapu-Lapu City on March 11, 2019.
She was last seen on Sunday while gathering contributions for mass service at the local parish in Bangkal Village.
Her absence provoked her mother to report to The Philippine National Police (PNP) when she did not return home the entire night.
The police inquiry
Several villagers who were passing by the next morning were shocked to encounter a young girl’s motionless body left undressed in the middle of a field.
Upon learning about the body dump, the police dispatched a team to the area. The police initially suspected that it was a case of rape and homicide.
It was alleged that Christine Lee Silawan was enticed into a rendezvous by her anonymous suitor using a counterfeit Facebook account before her demise.
Silawan was found deceased on March 11, 2019, with numerous stab wounds and her face disfigured.
As per an autopsy, her tongue, trachea, esophagus, and portions of her neck and right ear were also absent.
The ferocity with which Christine was slayed led the authorities to speculate that the culprit might have been under the influence of narcotics.
To determine Christine’s arrival at the location, the police scoured the area for CCTV footage, and the pursuit of the perpetrator commenced shortly thereafter.
Who was Christine’s assailant?
The Philippine National Police (PNP) disclosed that the perpetrator of Christine Lee Silawan had been seized, and the murder case had been concluded.
Renato “Renren” Payupan Llenes, 43, was the suspect whom Police General Oscar Albayalde personally encountered in Cebu City.
As per the PNP leader, the suspect admitted to his crime through an extrajudicial confession due to his guilty conscience.
He went on to describe how the suspect elaborated on the reasons behind the slaying of the Cebuano adolescent and the modus operandi he employed.
The suspect purportedly enticed Silawan using a fabricated Facebook account, pretending to be a young teenage boy, and maintained contact with her. On March 10, at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish church grounds, he assumed the role of the driver of her alleged Facebook chat partner to persuade Silawan to accompany him.
According to Albayalde, the suspect alleged that he killed Silawan in a fit of jealousy by repeatedly thrusting her with scissors.
The suspect purported that Llenes used techniques learned from YouTube tutorials to remove the face of the Cebuana teen to prevent identification of the victim.
