Missing GenSan girl found dead 6 days later

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews /19 Jan) – A female Grade 10 student was found dead Wednesday afternoon in an abandoned bunkhouse near a housing complex here, six days after she was reported missing by her family.

The decomposing remains of Jazdel Gabayeron, 16, a student of SPED Integrated School, was retrieved inside a makeshift comfort room of the bunkhouse, which is situated beside Conel Road and across the Camella Cerritos subdivision in Purok Malipayon, Barangay San Isidro.

The site is just a few meters from a road leading to her school campus, where she was last seen alive on Jan. 12.

A spot report from the City Police Station No. 4 said Jazdel’s body was initially located sprawled inside the comfort room by children playing in the area past 3 p.m. Wednesday and immediately reported it to concerned residents.

Responding police scene-of-the-crime operatives reported that she was still wearing her school uniform and with her cellphone, school bag, and other personal valuables scattered at the site.

A caliber 9mm handgun and an empty shell was also found near her body, the report said.

The girl’s parents, Jaz and Rinadel Gabayeron, broke down upon seeing and confirming her remains at the site past 6 p.m.

Jaz Gabayeron, Jazdel’s father, said in an earlier radio interview that he personally ferried his daughter to her school from their home in Purok Carcon, Barangay Lagao around 7 a.m. last Jan. 12.

Upon arriving at the school, she told her father that she would be joining a school activity that afternoon and asked that she be fetched around 6 p.m.

“But she was not around when I came to fetch her and nowhere inside the school campus when we tried to find her,” he said.

He said he went to the house of one of Jazdel’s classmates and was told that she did not attend her classes that day and was later confirmed by one of her teachers.

Police officials have not yet issued an official statement on the case and the ownership of the handgun found at the scene, as the investigation is reportedly still ongoing.

Mr. Gabayeron is a retired soldier and currently working as a “security practitioner and security consultant,” as mentioned in his Facebook account. (Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews)