VALENCIA CITY, BUKIDNON – After four days of searching, the body of the seven-year-old girl, Mae Love Sayta, was found in a carabao puddle near a motor pool in Barangay Bagontaas, this city.
Lolita Sayta, the mother of Mae Love, recalled that at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, Sunday, January 24, the girl sold puto (steamed rice cake) in their neighborhood to earn an amount of P5 that she would use in renting a bicycle that she wanted to play with. Then, while Mae Love was playing with the rented bicycle, her mother told her not to go afar.
At past 4 o’clock in the afternoon, Lolita went to a nearby market to buy some food and left Mae Love with her nine-year old brother.
During dinner time, her family looked for Mae Love but she was nowhere to be found.
On Monday morning, the family of Mae Love asked Mayor Azucena Huervas, Vice Mayor Policarpio Morillo, the local police and other government agencies to help locate the girl.
Then, on Thursday, they found the body of the girl already in an advance stage of decomposition partly covered by mud in a carabao puddle.
According to reports received by the local police, somebody who noticed a foot of a person in the puddle immediately reported what he saw to the police.
The barangay residents exerted more effort in looking for the missing girl when they learned that Mayor Huervas offered an amount of P20,000 reward to whoever could find or give information on the girl’s whereabouts.
Meantime, the members of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) noted to have found the lower part of the girl’s clothing was torn. They are now investigating the incident and looking into the possibility that the girl was raped and killed before she was dumped into the puddle.
The family of Mae Love is demanding that justice be served for the death of their child. – Rhea Montecalvo/Newsline.ph
