Suspect in girl’s slay nabbed

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines — A suspect in the murder of a seven-year-old girl, whose body was found in a forest in Sariaya, Quezon, surrendered to authorities yesterday morning.

The suspect, identified only as alias Pocholo, gave himself up to officials of Barangay Morong, who turned him over to the police.

Aside from allegedly killing the girl, the suspect also attacked the victim’s eight-year-old playmate, who was able to escape and reported the incident to her mother, according to Maj. Romar Pacis, Sariaya police chief.

The body of the victim was found by her father in Barangay Pili on Friday afternoon.

“The girls knew the suspect as he was their neighbor. He must have persuaded the girls to go with him to the forest,” Pacis said.

Charges of murder and frustrated murder will be filed against the suspect today before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor, he said.