The Murder of Christine Lee Silawan

Hey there, listener. Do you have something to say? Then you're already a podcaster. You just don't know it yet. Whether you love to shoot the breeze of friends, have an urge to share your passion with the world or even want to grow your business. You've got something worth saying with a podcast. With A-Cost, it couldn't be easier to start your own show. Launch, grow, and make money from your podcast across all listening platforms. If you have something to say, you're a podcaster. Add over to acaf.com to get started for free. As a true crime fan, do you ever just have that one case or maybe two that you cannot get out of your mind? I have a few to be honest, but nothing has sent a shiver down my spine lately than the case of Christine Lee Silawan. As you know, when it comes to crimes perpetrated against women and girls, I've become very invested and heated. I detest violence in general, but gender-based violence is something that I will always abhor and advocate against. Christine Lee was a young girl who became a victim of a crime in the most horrible way. But what really adds insult to injury is the way this case was investigated. From where a layperson like me is standing, the investigation looked like a competition between two police agencies who wanted the prestige of having solved this horrible crime. That became not only a national sensation, but an international one as well. But Christine Lee deserved so much better from the police, from the people who were supposed to do their very best to bring her killer or killers to justice. As I always say, outrage is good, but holding public servants to account is better. This is a story of Christine Lee Silawan. [MUSIC PLAYING] Mabuhai, you are listening to La Game, a Filipino True Crime podcast. I am your host, Christine. Please note that this episode contains details that could be very upsetting and disturbing for some people. So please make sure that you take care of yourself whilst listening. Nothing is quite exciting and confusing at the same time as when you are a teenager. Somehow you feel invincible, energetic at all times, curious, impulsive, passionate, and moody all at once. The world truly feels like it is your oyster. As a teenager, you also start gravitating towards some things that would shape your likes and dislikes and ultimately your personality. For 16-year-old Christine Lee Silawan, a ninth grader of Maribago National High School, her likes would include the South Korean pop group BTS, some anime, and that website Wat Pad, a typical teenager of this generation indeed. And this typical teen was having a typical day on 10th of March 2019. She was scheduled to serve as a church collector at a mass at the Sacred Heart Parish in Barangay Bahak. She let her mother, Lourdes, know that the mass was starting at 6 p.m. and that she would be home shortly after. By 8 in the evening, Lourdes, her mother, started feeling uneasy and worried. Christine had still not come home. Lourdes decided to look for her and did so until one in the morning. While she was looking for Christine, she would call family and friends and ask them if they perhaps had seen Christine. She went back home at some point and by day break on 11th March, she hurried over to the Sacred Heart Parish where Christine was serving as a church collector just hours earlier. At the church, Lourdes was shown the parishes log book and Christine's signature was in it, indicating that she was at the mass like she said she would be. Whilst at the parish, Lourdes was approached by a witness who told her that they saw Christine and another churchmate going to a ballot stand just outside of the church building. Later on, this churchmate would recount how he and Christine indeed go to a ballot stand but that he had to go back into the church building to get something. When he came back outside, Christine was apparently gone already. Little did Lourdes know that by the time she had gone to the church and talked to Christine's church friends, another resident in Barangay Bankal in Sifu, Mahayahai had just stumbled upon a half naked female body but this was not the most horrifying aspect of his discovery. Half of the face of the person he found was skinned off of its skull. The resident could not identify the badly mutilated body of Christine so he did not waste time in calling the police. First responders and onlookers immediately saw how Christine was stabbed multiple times and how she looked like she had tried to defend herself as she also showed multiple defense wounds. The fact that Christine was naked from the waist down indicated to the first responders that she may have been sexually assaulted but they wouldn't know for sure. The state of Christine Salawan was deeply upsetting. After the first responders were done with their initial assessment of the scene and of Christine in Barangay Bankal, Christine's body was immediately transferred to a funeral home for an initial examination. Upon initial examination of Christine's body on the 12th of March, the medical examiner of the Philippine National Police or PNP made preliminary observations and findings. Again, I'd like to warn you that the following details are very graphic. I know I have already shared some graphic details already but please be warned again. If you do not want to know about the details of the autopsy, then please look at the show notes to see when you can resume playing the episode after I have talked about the autopsy. The autopsy revealed that Christine's skinned face seemed to have been the result of a corrosive substance that was applied to her skin to perhaps aid the perpetrator in skinning her face with possibly a special knife or bladed object of sorts. The medical examiner toyed with the idea that maybe acid was used or that maybe a scavenging animal may have caused the skinning. However, the medical examiner explained that the theory about the scavenging animals was less likely to be true because part of Christine's face was so cleanly removed that not a single muscle was left on her skull and because her eyes were also left undamaged and intact. This did not sound like the work of a scavenging animal. As if this was not brutal enough already, the medical examiner also revealed that Christine's tongue and parts of her throat were forcibly removed from her. The esophagus, trachea and neck muscles were also ripped off as well as her right ear, indicating to both the medical examiner and the police that there was an immense anger or hate in the actions of Christine's murderer and that this crime was very much of a personal nature. The medical examiner, however, said that it was possible that the absence of the throat and tongue could also be explained by these being eaten by animals post mortem. Nevertheless, the medical examiner said that they could not find any other animal bites so again the theory about animal bites may not hold water at all. The medical examiner also stated that if the murderer had removed both throat and tongue then maybe this was most probably done to make it harder to identify Christine. Now, like the first responders on the scene, the initial autopsy did not indicate whether Christine was sexually assaulted or not. The police, however, promised that whatever biological specimen they had acquired from Christine's body would be sent to the national headquarters of the PNP crime lab for testing. Now, a horrific crime like this is unlikely to stay under wraps. The press and the public will start speculating as soon as they learn about it in the news, and I can totally understand that behavior. However, what I do not get is when the police does the same, and so publicly as well. In Christine's case, a mere 24 hours after the discovery of her body in Situ Mahyaha, the police for some reason started floating around theories in the media. I do not particularly agree with this way of handling the media in, of informing the public. It can cause a lot of fear and hysteria and can also undermine the investigation and its credibility. But I digress. The police were floating theories such as that the suspect or suspects could have been high on drugs when they killed Christine. Despite the medical examiner's remarks about the meticulous way Christine had been mutilated, and how this could have taken at least two hours to finish, making it therefore hard to believe that it could have been done by someone high on the list of drugs, the police still informed the media and the public that this was a line of inquiry that they were pursuing. They then warned the residents of Labulapu and implored them to be vigilant. Now fair enough, that's a good warning to do. But speculating about how Christine was murdered or who might have done it at such an early stage of the investigation strikes me as reckless. Now with the case garnering so much national attention and even international attention, as I've already said in the beginning, the police was able to gather a lot of intelligence in the first 48 hours after Christine's body was discovered. They were able to jumpstart their investigation. In a lot of news articles from the 12th of March, it looked like the police had already talked to at least one witness from Barangay Bankal, who purportedly saw three men in the area around the same time Christine had been left in the vacant lot she was found in. Now a side note here, due to the lack of blood at the scene where Christine's body was found, the police most likely concluded that that was not their primary crime scene. As in, that was not the place where she was killed, but merely the place where she was dumped after she was killed. Now in an effort to keep the public informed and updated about their investigation, the police told several media outlets that their next course of action would be to check CCTV footage in and around the area of Barangay Bankal and the church to see if they could find Christine in any of the footage saved. Now remember that in any crime investigation and especially in murder cases, the most important thing to do as part of the first days of investigation is to establish a timeline of the victim's movements in the last 24 hours. In Christine's case, the police knew that she left her home and went to church and that she attended mass. They also knew that she was last seen alive by her churchmate who was supposed to eat ballot with her after mass. So in order to fill in the gaps in their timeline, the police talked to some residents in Barangay Bankal and some of them gave statements and said how they heard dogs barking loudly around 1.50 a.m. The barking sounded like it came from the vacant lot, indicating therefore to the police that that may have been the time when Christine was left in the vacant lot. By the 13th of March, La Pula Poussietti, the whole Filipino nation and even the international community had learned little by little about what happened to Christine. The La Pula Poussietti government expressed their condolences to the salawan and promised to help as much as they could. They put out a 1 million cash reward to anyone who could help the police identify the person or persons behind Christine's murder. On the same day, police revealed that they had a person of interest in sight as this person had exchanged some messages with Christine in recent times. At this point, it was not clear whether these messages were sent through social media or whether they were text messages. The police did not clarify whether they thought this person of interest and Christine were perhaps romantically involved, but some media outlets had taken this as implied. The identity of the person was kept anonymous for the time being, with the justification that if they revealed it, the other suspected perpetrators may become rattled and could flee. Now, you have to understand that at this point in their investigation, the police was operating under the assumption that there were more than one killers out there. And so the investigation continued. By March 15, things shifted a little bit. The media and the public demanded swift justice for Christine and wanted the perpetrator or perpetrator's off the streets as quickly as possible. As a response, the Department of Justice or the DOJ had become involved unsurprisingly if you ask me. The DOJ decided to direct the National Bureau of Investigation or NBI to probe and to conduct a so-called case build-up on Christine's murder. The NBI had then been empowered to file appropriate charges against the perpetrators. The DOJ also demanded that the NBI submit regular progress reports about their probe. On the same day, the police in La Puella Poceti cooperated with their equivalent in Davao City and decided to arrest one of Sebou's most-wanted criminals who had been in Davao for a while at that time. The police arrested Jonas Martel Bueno. But he was actually arrested for an unrelated case that seemed to have had a lot of things in common with Christine's murder. This was the reason Bueno quickly became a person of interest nearly four days after Christine was found. Bueno vehemently denied any involvement in Christine's case, and by the end of that very same day, the police in La Puella Poceti clarified that Bueno was in fact not a person of interest. When this lead proved to lead nowhere, the police and now the NBI as well had to go back to the drawing board. By the 16th of March, details surfaced about how Christine had apparently met someone on Facebook and how she was supposed to meet him a month before she died. Friends warned her not to do this and not to meet the stranger telling her that it was not a good idea. Fortunately, Christine seemed to have been persuaded and the meeting apparently did not take place. Or so her friends thought. Christine had indeed met up with this stranger, but it is unclear from reports at that time whether this person she met was the same one who was already flagged by the police in their preliminary investigations. After all, it is very much possible that Christine was messaging with more than one person. At this point in the investigation, the forensic and medical examiner's team still could not definitively say whether Christine was raped or not, something that was taking a long time to determine. I am not sure whether this was normal for the PNP, but it seems very counterproductive to not expedite such a process, especially because having that finding and also a DNA test result could greatly speed up the investigation at all fronts. But unfortunately, they did not have that yet, so we move on to the 18th of March. On that day, the NBI announced that they had had a break in their investigation. They had arrested a suspect whose identity could not be revealed at that point. What we do know was that this person was allegedly Christine's ex-boyfriend. As it also turned out, he was only 17 when he was arrested, and because he was very much still a minor then, his identity could not be released to the public and the press. Nevertheless, the NBI informed the media that the suspect allegedly admitted to the [BLANK_AUDIO] killing as a result of extreme jealousy. He also allegedly admitted that he had co-conspirators and that the NBI were doing their due diligence in looking for these co-conspirators. By the 19th of March, the NBI further announced that they had a fury that Christine was most probably killed not too far away from where she was left. They were informed by Christine's mother, Lorde's Selauan, that she in fact had seen blood stains near the vacant lot where Christine was found. But these stains were now gone, unfortunately, because it was very dusty in that area. By the time the first responders got there, obviously they could not find anything anymore. Around the same time, the police who, as a reminder, was conducting a parallel investigation to the NBI announced that they had acquired CCTV footage that showed Christine's movements in the area before she was killed. In one footage, the police described how Christine looked like she was having a fight with a man. The NBI, and to some extent at that point at least, the police believed this to be the ex-boyfriend. The police announced that they had the intention to have him undergo DNA testing as well. They also said that they found some clothing of interest, his ball cap specifically. When asked why the ball cap was something of interest, the police decided not to elaborate any further. So it looked like the NBI and the police were very much set on this alleged ex-boyfriend being the primary suspect in Christine's killing. And we have to bear that in mind because at some point this will all change and will cause quite the confusion in the investigation. Now, as is routine in any murder investigation, the police authorities would need to obtain a search warrant to further conduct a search of the suspect's home and to move forward with their investigation. The NBI as a police authority was able to obtain such a warrant and proceeded to search the home of the suspect. At the home, the NBI prioritized looking for any clothing items that the suspect may have worn on the day of Christine's murder. The NBI later reported that during their search they found the suspect's cell phone and that this was already destroyed by the time they confiscated it for forensic testing. Nevertheless, the NBI was still able to retrieve text messages that indicated that the suspect had picked up Christine after Sunday Mass. Something that seems to coincide with what the church made said by Christine disappearing from the bullet stand. Most probably she disappeared after she was picked up by her ex-boyfriend. According to the NBI as well, the text messages between Christine and the suspect also indicated to them that the suspect was extremely jealous and it all but confirmed their suspicion that this was the primary motive in Christine's murder. Indeed, the NBI would later confirm that the suspect apparently had made a confession and admitted that Christine's killing was a crime of passion that he killed her out of jealousy just as the NBI suspected. Now put a pin on that because I will come back to that later. The NBI further reported that the suspect apparently admitted to having thrown away the knife he used in killing Christine. The suspect explained to them apparently that he and Christine were actually still in a relationship. This was of course contrary to the known information about the suspect being an ex-boyfriend already. There were therefore questions whether Christine had broken up with the suspect on the night of her murder or whether they had broken up a long time ago and the suspect just did not want to accept this which then led to Christine's untimely death. Now according to the NBI, despite their arrest of Christine's ex-boyfriend or maybe so boyfriend, they did not have any plans in ending the investigation as they firmly believed that the ex-boyfriend now given the alias John did not act alone. So the NBI had the intention of continuing their investigation to make sure that John's co-conspirators were also apprehended and brought to justice. Weirdly enough, by the 20th of March the B&P declared the case to be solved or so some news outlets wrote. This is odd because obviously the NBI had just arrested Christine's ex-boyfriend John and both police agencies were under the strong impression that John had accomplices who could still be at large. Declaring a case solved while still looking for further suspects seemed to be a bit misleading and counterproductive to me but again I digress. Anyway let's look at the NBI's handling of the case after they had arrested John. The NBI explained that they were proceeding with charging John with murder. They believed that their evidence at this point it was truly merely circumstantial at best had apparently legs to stand on. The NBI explained that they charge the ex-boyfriend under the Cyber Crime Prevention Act because John allegedly communicated with Christine per his phone. Section 6 of this national law provides that and I quote "all crimes defined and penalized by the revised penal code as amended in special laws if committed by through and with the use of information and communications technologies shall be covered by the relevant provisions of this act." Now I see what the NBI was trying to do here and maybe I just do not understand the intricacies of Filipino criminal law but I thought this specific provision in the Cyber Crime Prevention Act is a bit redundant. If you want to charge someone with murder just charge them with murder. If the fact that there was communication through text is deemed an aggravating factor then just say that. I really do not see why he could just not be charged under the revised penal code. Something I would think would carry more weight but anyway enough of my whiny lawyer rant. Of course as a police authority who was trying to build up a case against John the NBI was hoping that the prosecutors would see what they were seeing that John was the one who killed Christine. But while this was happening and whilst a panel of special prosecutors were conducting their investigation and determination of the NBI's case the Lapu Lapu City Police Department was diligently also conducting their own investigation. They were likely to agree with the NBI's investigation that John was likely Christine's killer especially because the NBI had reassured the public that they had a witness that could place John at the crime scene. We do not really get a lot of information about this witness and so we do not know who this person was who allegedly saw John and whether they had been thoroughly questioned by the police. Now remember when we were asking ourselves whether Christine and John were still a couple when she was killed knowing that John had allegedly maintained to the NBI that they were still very much together and that he was not at all an ex-boyfriend like the NBI said. Well the NBI told the media that they were able to determine that Christine and John were a couple only until the 28th of February 2019 and this but all cemented the NBI's suspicions of John. So the NBI's theory of what happened was that John the jealous ex-boyfriend knew that Christine was going to be at the church that Sunday evening. He headed there and the NBI maintained that they had CCTV footage showing how John was walking on the street that led to the church. The NBI then stated that John potentially saw how Christine was by the ballot stand with her churchmate who we now know is a male friend. This according to the NBI must have sent John into a jealous, race. therefor prompting him to confront Christine when said churchmate went back into the church building. The NBI said that there was another CCTV footage showing Christine and who they think was John walking away from church. The NBI deduced that both Christine and John may have walked to where Christine was eventually killed wherever this was, and then John dumped Christine's body afterwards at Sithyo Mahyaha where she was found the next day. The NBI was very confident that they were on to something that their fury of the case was very plausible. After all, they also said that they discovered text messages between John and Christine where John apparently told Christine that he wanted to give her a cell phone and a teddy bear indicating that there was a meeting that took place after church that Sunday evening. The NBI also added that on top of the text messages they could also confirm that John's clothing had blood stains on them and that John also had bruises on his arms suspected to be bruises inflicted by Christine when she was trying to defend herself. As for John's family, they were an utter disbelief. They did not believe that John could do anything to hurt Christine. According to them, he's a good person and was deeply saddened when he learned of Christine's death. His family was of the strong belief that the evidence against John had been fabricated. John's mother maintained she could produce witnesses who could definitely put John in their barangay when Christine was apparently being killed somewhere else. But the NBI was not having it. They soldered on and continued with the process of investigating John in any possible accomplices. As he was a minor and a part of the investigation, John needed to go through a so-called discernment procedure in which it would be determined whether discernment was present at the commission of the crime. This procedure is applicable to only children, specifically children in conflict with the law or CICL. CICLs are aged 15 years and above but not older than 18 years old. The question essentially was if John knew what he was doing was wrong when he allegedly killed Christine. That is in a nutshell what the discernment procedure was all about. The court would then determine whether a CICL like John would end up in jail or in a social welfare facility. On the day of the procedure reports surfaced about how John's destroyed phone that was confiscated by the NBI during their search of his home contained pornographic material. When this report surfaced, a lot of people and probably the NBI as well felt that the discernment procedure was just a formality. They felt that they truly got their guy now. So the procedure went forward and he passed. John passed the procedure and it was confirmed that he was in his right mind when he allegedly killed Christine and he knew what he was doing. At this point, obviously it did not look good for John. He then hired a lawyer called Vincent Islis. And from the research that I've done, it sounded like this lawyer was quite a fierce one and he loved being interviewed by the media. On the 21st of March, Islis filed a motion to have John released to his family. Islis stated that the police authorities did not have any legal grounds to detain him. He also asked for a gag order against the NBI who he thought was talking too much to the media. He said the NBI, for example, talked to the media about the pornographic material found on John's phone. A detail of that really served no purpose or relevance in the investigation according to Islis. This lawyer also did not miss the opportunity to give the media and the NBI a basic lesson in criminal law. Islis explained that as per the documents on his client's arrest, it looked like John was arrested without a warrant. A warrantless arrest is not something odd, but it cannot occur all the time. Different countries will have determined what is acceptable under the term warrantless arrest. In the Philippines, such an arrest is possible in three situations only. Firstly, when the suspect is caught in the act of committing a crime. Secondly, when a detained suspect or a convict escapes from prison. And lastly, when a suspect is arrested in the process of a hot pursuit operation. The NBI used the third exception for a warrantless arrest of John. Islis disagreed with this and thought that this was a wrong application of the law. Hey, Ligon fam. As you may or may not know, I used to host this podcast somewhere else, but I switched to Buzzsprout a few weeks after I started. And it was the best decision ever. So if you are thinking of starting your own podcast, I really want to recommend Buzzsprout as a hosting website. With Buzzsprout, your podcast will get listed in every major podcasting platform. You will get a great looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening to your podcast and tools to promote your episodes in so much more. Using Buzzsprout truly changed my podcasting experience and I cannot recommend it enough. And I must say the staff at Buzzsprout genuinely care about their podcasters. They respond quickly to our questions to my questions specifically because I do ask a lot. And they always provide me with helpful information always. So make sure to join me in over 100,000 other podcasters already on Buzzsprout. Sign up now using my affiliate link that you can find in the show notes and get a $20 Amazon gift card, which will be sent to you after you have signed up and paid two invoices. So again, check out my affiliate link in the show notes and use it for signing up to Buzzsprout.com. Okay, now back to the show. John's lawyer Vincent Eastlis further added that just because his client was the last one seen with Christine did not mean that he killed her. At the most, he said the NBI only had a circumstantial evidence against his client and weirdly enough as we've already heard, the NBI agreed. I mean, they did write in their complaint to the prosecutor that yes, at the most, they had circumstantial evidence against John. Now, just for clarity here, a complaint in Filipino criminal law is an application by a say a police agency such as the NBI or the PNP. And this is submitted to the prosecutor who then will look over the evidence and decide if a case is worth pursuing and prosecuting or not. Now, why this is called a complaint? I do not know. It's very different from English and Welsh law where I have practiced, but in Filipino law specifically in Filipino criminal law, this is the legal term or jargon that is being used. Now, at the time, Eastlis also stated that he could produce at least nine witnesses that could confirm John's whereabouts on the night Christine was killed, further showing that John most probably was not the man that was seen with Christine in the CCTV footage that the NBI made public mere days after Christine's death. Finally, Eastlis also stated that not once did his client confess to killing Christine, essentially pointing his fingers at the NBI, implying that they had made it all possible. up to justify John's detention. Of course, this came as a surprise to me. The media was very confident in their reports at the time about John confessing to the crime, indicating to me that they got their scoop from the source directly, i.e. the NBI. So did they lie about this or did the NBI really fabricate their evidence? I did try to find any reports or articles or blog entries, even YouTube videos that would give me any sort of information about whether the NBI did something fishy here and merely fabricated the evidence against John, but unfortunately I did not find anything. The NBI all throughout the existence of this case and their investigation maintained that John confessed and that they had strong evidence that he was Christine's killer. Anyway, going back to John's lawyer is less, being the diligent defense lawyer that he was, he strategically questioned the NBI's focus on his client. He said, "Well, wasn't there this guy that Christine was chatting with on Facebook? Did they ever follow up on that lead?" And I would have to agree with these questions. For my research, the NBI likely did follow it up, but it may have been bumped down the priority list after John was arrested. By the 21st of March 2019, the media revealed that the person Christine was chatting with was someone called CJD as the cybercrime unit of the NBI was still doing their forensic investigation at that time and there were as oft 21st of March no leads from that same investigation and so the NBI had to focus on John as their current and sole suspect. But, it's less observation despite being self-serving of course was valid. Even in my research, I got the feeling that the NBI was having a bit of a tunnel vision situation. One opinion piece I read in the course of my research commented that the NBI looked like they were eager to compete with the investigation of the Lapu Lapu city police to perhaps get the money reward offered by the city government of Lapu Lapu. This was of course denied by the NBI. According to them, both agencies were communicating and cooperating and even sharing evidence with each other to further their individual investigations. Also, according to the NBI, such reward money is never intended for government bodies. They are meant for private citizens who help investigations, which is true. Nevertheless, we will see later that Eastless and other Penoise may be were on to something when they observed the fast tracking of John's case by the NBI. So, whilst the NBI and the PNP were doing their investigations, the public was inundated by the many theories about Christine's murder. They have all surfaced one after the other. Could Christine's ex-boyfriend have been high on drugs when he killed her? Did someone else who was high on drugs kill her? Was it part of a ritualistic killing or some college hazing ritual perhaps? Was it a family enemy who wanted to exact revenge on Christine's family? Is it the doing of cult members perhaps? Everybody wanted to chime in. Even makeup artists on YouTube had the morbid idea to create a look that "honored Christine." I found the trend deeply disturbing and disrespectful, but on the other hand, who could blame the public? Their fantasies and imagination were running wild because the police and the NBI were not giving them any clear updates and information as to where the investigations were. Anyway, moving on. Whilst up to this point, we have been observing how the NBI and the PNP were subtly having some sort of a maybe passive, aggressive competition as to who can solve the case first. Another public agency became involved on behalf of the Selauan family. The public attorney's office made a statement on the 22nd of March about how there were many inconsistencies in the current investigations of both the NBI and the PNP. The public attorney's office, or POW, or P-A-O, was not particularly happy with the NBI wanting to charge John on what they say was purely circumstantial evidence that apparently did not even match the PNP's finding. No bear in mind, we have not heard much about the PNP's investigation at this point and the reports about it around this time were scarce. After all, the DOJ assigned the NBI as the lead agency, and so their opinion, the results of their investigation, became the main attraction whilst the PNP's investigation moved into the background. Clearly though, the P-A-O or POW knew a bit more than us, but from what we already know now, we can safely assume that despite John's arrest by the NBI, the PNP may have not necessarily agreed with that decision or with that suspect, maybe they had another one in mind? Put a pin on that. By the 23rd of March, Christine was laid to rest with around a thousand people in attendance of her funeral. To add further insult to injury though, John, the NBI's main suspect and Christine's ex-boyfriend, was released from detention because the city prosecutor agreed with John's lawyer that the warrantless arrest was not valid. This was a shock to Christine's family, who apparently was not even notified prior to John's release. Four days later on the 27th of March, President of the letter they weighed in. He demanded that John be re-arrested. Of course, attorney is less needed to weigh in on the president's order as well. Eastless explained that the orders to release John from detention could not be revoked. He explained that a motion for reconsideration to revoke this was not possible. Whilst the headlines were very much keen on covering the presidential demand to re-arrest John, little did everyone know that by the time the case moved into the month of April 2019, the investigation or investigations into Christine's killing would get a little bit more complicated than it already was. On 2 April 2019, the public attorney's office announced that the family had requested a second autopsy just before Christine was buried, and they were now ready to reveal the results of their autopsy. According to the medical examiner by the P.A.O, they could confirm that Christine had indeed been raped. The medical examiner also confirmed that the skin of half of Christine's face was burnt off by acid. He also confirmed that apart from the obvious 20-plus stab wounds, Christine was also strangled with most probably a rope. The medical examiner Dr. Erfee also concluded that there were likely two suspects involved in Christine's killing. By 3 April, even your average Juan de la Cruz could see that by now we had too many cooks spoiling the broth. We have here three different government agencies with seemingly three different approaches and initial investigation results. Juan said they were not sure whether Christine was raped or not. Juan said they were sure that she was raped. One agency could not for sure say that acid was used to skin Christine's face, and the other was very much saying that this was a foregone conclusion. One agency had a rest at a suspect. The other could not really fully say they support that arrest just yet. Now this was problematic, and I don't need to tell you that because if these government agencies could not agree as to what was what if they could not present a united front in this or any investigation, they would be giving any defense lawyer so much fuel to show reasonable doubt, which is a essentially a one-way ticket to an acquittal. Also, I question why these three agencies were allowed to just proceed with their own individual investigations. Is this normal? And in Christine's case, could the DOJ have not intervened? Perhaps it all seemed very counterproductive and seriously discrediting. Now, by the 4th of April, the NBI finally was able to confirm that the blood stains found on John's clothing, the clothing they had seized during his arrest, contained Christine's DNA, therefore bolstering the NBI's evidence against John. Also, during this announcement, the NBI confirmed that they could not possibly consider the autopsy report by the public attorney's office. They implied that because the PNP crime lab, whose results they were relying on, did not conclusively determine signs of rape after examining Christine's body right after she was found, the NBI would be relying on that result. The NBI was essentially saying that the public attorney's office was only able to conduct an autopsy about 12 days after Christine's death. Her body and any evidence of anything could have degraded already, rendering the P.A.O.'s medical examination as less reliable. However, the NBI did state that they were still waiting for the DNA test results of the swabs taken from Christine's body in order to further investigate and conclusively determine whether she was raped or not. Now, as if things could not get any more complicated and weird, by the 10th of April, the Sebu Police Department announced that they had arrested a suspect in the killing of Christine Selauan. No further details were given about the man's identity until a day later. The police had arrested 42-year-old Renate Torienes, a father of five who raised them with a live-in partner. Now, in a lot of articles, Renate Torienes was said to be 44 years old or even 45, but I think I'll stick with 42 for the time being, but this might change in the course of the episode from this moment on, so do bear that in mind. Now, according to the Lapu Lapu City Police, Lienes confessed to the crime and confirmed that he was the CJBS, who was communicating with Christine over Facebook for several months now. He apparently admitted to grooming Christine on the social media platform. According to the police, Lienes was not a stranger to them. He had previously been reported as having a history of duping girls and for being involved with drugs. The specifics of both activities were not disclosed, unfortunately, so we do not know what was meant by a history of duping girls and involvement with drugs. Now, the Lapu Lapu City Police also expressed that they were now interested in initiating proceedings against Lienes, but not necessarily for the murder yet. They were going to charge him for possession of firearms as he was found to be in possession of a 45 caliber pistol when he was arrested. It isn't clear to me if this was merely a tactic to make sure he could be detained indefinitely during the Salauan investigation and to give the police time to build their case and gather more evidence before charging him with murder and rape. Although this was unclear to me, I think this was the way that they were taking. Anyway, the police shared with the media that Lienes was asked to give the police a sort of walkthrough of the events of March 10th and 11th. The police department was now finally ready to share the details of that walkthrough as well as Lienes' confession. According to Lienes, he sent Christine a text message around 6pm that Sunday evening, whilst he was outside of the parish waiting. Christine did not reply to his message, so he waited for her to come out after the mass. When he spotted her outside the church, he invited her to walk with him, but Christine refused because as she would tell him, she was due to meet someone else at the time. Lienes would also admit that Christine was taken aback that Lienes was older than what he pretended to be when he was chatting with her as CJDS. So Christine walked off and he still walked with her despite her initial refusal. They walked into Sithio Mahayaha. Lienes noted that it was dark and he had to use his phone's torch to light the way. Lienes then confessed that he asked Christine to have sex with him, but she refused. Lienes apparently did not like this and started an argument with her. The two of them fought and Lienes ended up slapping Christine twice. Now, in other news articles, it was reported that in the course of the conversation and argument, Christine admitted to not being a virgin anymore, which further angered Lienes. He said he started punching her and beat her out of anger. Lienes recounted that Christine was pleading for her life loudly. So he decided to stab her with a pair of scissors that he had with him until Christine fell to the ground. Lienes then said that he knelt down and started removing Christine's shorts. Christine begged him to stop. Lienes attempted to rape her, but as he could not get an erection, he abandoned that plan. Lienes admitted that he stabbed her some more and skinned half of her face. He did not want her to be identified. He would later admit that the skinning of Christine's face was inspired by the Momo Challenge, a controversial online challenge that encouraged children and teens to self-harm. When asked what pushed him to finally confess, he said that he felt remorseful about what he had done to Christine and for the arrest of John, Christine's now 18-year-old ex-boyfriend. He emphasized that John was innocent and he, Renato Lienes, was alone in killing Christine. He also admitted that he was under the influence of illegal drugs at the time. So you are probably asking, what did the NBI say to all this? Well, it would come as no surprise that the NBI did not think that Lienes' confession and arrest changed anything in their case against John. Their plan to have him charged and prosecuted would continue according to NBI's Central Visitors Director Thomas Enrille. As for the PNP or the police in La Polla Poceti, they were planning to share their investigation results with the NBI. When asked if they think their investigation results contradicted the NBI's results, the PNP deflected and said that they were still waiting to talk to the NBI. It would also come as no surprise that Vincent Eastlis, John's defense lawyer, also had something to say about this and I am inclined to agree with him again. He said that the PNP's case just debunked the NBI's case. Again, Eastlis was probably thinking how easy it was now to cast reasonable doubt on the NBI's case should his client land in a criminal trial. And really, if you think about it, Lienes' lawyer was probably thinking the same thing. I did not really find any comment from Lienes' lawyer at that time, but he, she or they would be thinking the same thing. The two police agencies were looking like they were cancelling each other's cases out. As the days went on after Lienes' confession, some people commented how in a way, Lienes' confession sounded so scripted. I think I can comprehend that doubt. Lienes came at such an opportune time and my mind went in all directions. after I read about his confession. The details were so convenient for the PNP's investigation. It absolved John. It forced the NBI to reevaluate their evidence and it made the PNP look like it was winning this somehow unspoken competition with the NBI. Both agencies, of course, denied there was a competition at all because truly, why would that be? For what purpose? The only person who would benefit from this competition would be the murderer. He can be let off easily a trial and this will leave Christine and her family without any justice. While the issue of the confession sounding scripted did not resurface, the PNP doubled down on their evidence gathering. As it turned out, they had clear CCTV footage that showed Lianness with Christine on March the 10th. On top of that, the PNP also announced on the 24th of April that DNA samples taken from the scissors allegedly used to kill Christine matched both Christine and Lianness's DNA. To this, the NBI said, and I'm not kidding you, maybe both John and Lianness were at the crime scene. This, of course, contradicted what Lianness confessed to and what the NBI alleged John confessed to. To make this whole situation even more confusing, the PNP crime lab finally made a finding about whether Christine was raped or not. They said she was not. And that was, of course, in contradiction to what the P.A.O. autopsy had found. The issue about whether Christine was raped or not also became somewhat of a point of contention between the PNP, the NBI, and Lordeus Silauan, Christine's mother. When she was given the autopsy results by the public attorney's office, she demanded off the NBI that they should also ask the prosecutor to charge John with rape. But the NBI said they could not do so because their autopsy did not reveal any indication or evidence of rape. The PNP also could and would not invite the prosecutor to charge Lianness of rape because he did not confess to this. Remember, he said he attempted to, but he could not do so. Since the Lapu Lapu police also relied on the autopsy relied on by the NBI, the PNP merely planned on filing attempted rape charges against Lianness on top of, hopefully, murder charges. Lordeus Silauan, as a result, refused to sign the so-called complaint that a police agency such as the NBI or the PNP needed to file with a prosecutor to urge him to prosecute their suspects. Having a relative or family member of the victim or victim's co-sign of the complaint with either the NBI or PNP, greatly helps the police's case become a bit more stronger. But Lordeus refused to sign an affidavit that would be included in the complaint being filed against Lianness. She demanded one thing clearly. She wanted the PNP to also include John in their case. The PNP made it clear to her that their investigation did not show that John was in any way involved. So they cannot ask the prosecutor to consider a rape charge let alone a murder case against John. It was getting very messy in this case and that's an understatement. Just to recap, the Lapu Lapu police slash PNP alleged that Lianness was Christine's killer because he confessed and because they found Christine's DNA on the pair of scissors they obtained from searching Lianness's home. The PNP also found witnesses that could place Lianness around Sithio Mahayaha around Christine's estimated time of death. The PNP therefore wanted to charge Lianness with a gun possession offense, murder and attempted rape. Meanwhile, the NBI wanted the prosecutor to charge John with murder but not rape because they too found his blood and DNA where Christine's lifeless body was found. It was now most definitely clear that these two police agencies would not be able to consolidate their cases at all, something that ideally should have happened from the very beginning. So it will be up to the court to decide. In the meantime, the PNP made sure Lianness underwent a polygraph and psychiatric test as part of their investigation. They wanted to know if Lianness had the capacity to be tried in court. The tests revealed that he was fined to stand trial and so the PNP were now prepared to submit their case to the prosecutor and so was the NBI. A couple of weeks later on May 10th, 2019, the Lapu Lapu City Prosecutor's Office announced that on the 7th of May, three days before, they recommended the filing of murder charges against Lianness. The complaint against John was dismissed, which means that the prosecutor would not be recommending charging him with anything. The prosecutor allocated to the case, Russo Saragosa, stated that the Facebook messages between Christine and Lianness, the CCTV footage submitted to him by the PNP, the statements of witnesses and also Lianness's confession ultimately convinced him that Lianness was more likely to have killed Christine with whom Lianness was allegedly obsessed. On the 17th of May, criminal proceedings were initiated, and by the 23rd, Lianness was arraigned. However, the Salawan family was not present in court, most probably because they took issue with the dismissal of John as a second suspect or co-conspirator in Christine's murder. Now, bear in mind that at this point, Lianness was able to give some public statements to the media and in one of those moments, he reassured the Filipinos that he would be pleading guilty to the crimes he was being accused of. This promise would however be broken merely less than a month later. On the 7th of June 2019, contrary to what Lianness said less than a month earlier, he entered a plea of not guilty. His lawyer, Manuel de Goulachon, explained that, whilst it was true that Lianness promised to plead guilty, the only reason he was now pleading not guilty was to simply try and get the charge and eventual conviction downgraded to homicide instead of the original charge of murder. Please remember that if sentenced, a convicted murderer can be imprisoned for 20 to 40 years if not for life. A homicide sentence, on the other hand, will merely carry prison time for 12 to 20 years. By pleading not guilty, the court would have to have a trial instead of just proceeding to the sentencing part after an individual pleads guilty. The court needed, therefore, to determine whether Christine's killing fulfills the requirement of what is deemed to be murder under Filipino criminal law. Lianness's lawyer did say that his client would not be retracting his confession, which I thought was a very Lisa thing he could do. The next day, on the 8th of June, the special prosecutor assigned to Christine's case shared with the press that they would not be considering a plea bargain nor a downgrading of the murder charges. And so with that, pre-trial was set for the 28th of June, 2019. 10 days before the start of pre-trial, the public learned that Lianness was ultimately arrested with the help of his live-in partner, a woman whose identity was not made public. She was merely given the alias "bamela." Bamela tipped off the Lapulapu police about Lianness's involvement. Reports revealed that the police showed pictures captured from the CCTV footage that showed Lianness's face to the residents of Barangay Bahak, where the sacred, hard parish was located. Bamela was one of these residents, and she identified that in Adolianness as being the person captured on the CCTV footage. She then tipped off the police and became one of 23 people who were ultimately given the reward money that was collected by the city government of Lapulapu. After the start of the trial, media coverage greatly decreased, and there was not much known as to how far the trial got by the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I only found one article that talked about how only one witness was able to give their testimony so far. In the course of 11 months, that is. So the case was moving awfully slow and that could explain the lack of media interest and therefore coverage. But the next big news about the case would eventually come in May of 2020. Reports revealed that Renato Lienes was found dead in prison on 25 May 2020. His body was discovered at 6am that day. It was said to have died by suicide. In the investigation into his death, the respectulations that maybe foul play was involved because Lienes was in the same prison as one of Christine's uncles and he had in fact received death threats probably from said uncle. It was after receiving some of these death threats that he was transferred to the infirmary as a precautionary measure. However, it was in the infirmary's latrine that Lienes then hung himself using a rope that he fashioned and braided from old t-shirt scraps. One inmate revealed to the prison investigators that earlier that day he saw Lienes make this rope and when he asked him what it was for, Lienes told him that it was a makeshift clothesline. This led investigators to think that Lienes had planned this suicide and it was unlikely that foul play was involved. After all, Lienes had expressed some fellow prisoners in the past that he had planned to commit suicide. Nobody thought he would actually go through with it. Lienes, as it turned out, had no visitors since the start of his detention in prison. So people thought he must have been very sad. It is possible that the weight of this alleged crime, the lack of support system and the slow progress in the trial led him to finally take things into his own hands. Asked for Christine's case, if you really think about it, no real justice has been served. In Philippine law, once a suspect on trial dies before a verdict could be made, all criminal liability will be extinguished. Lienes, therefore, in the eyes of the law, died as an innocent man. This story is a tragic one and whilst I remain appalled by the way Christine had to die, I'm also appalled by the bureaucratic mess, the NBI, PNP and PAO left in their wake. The way things were done left me with even less trust in these agencies, competence and capabilities. Why didn't they work together? Why did they appear to be having some sort of competition? And why couldn't they look beyond their own theories and consider other possibilities as to how Christine's murder took place? It seemed that all three agencies, but especially the PNP and the NBI, missed out on a great opportunity to truly make a difference in the case by cooperating with each other. They truly need to do better. And with that, I want to end this rather horrific episode. Thank you so much for sticking by me, by the way. And now to my podcast recommendation of the week. My podcast recommendation of the week is The Lost Shaman. A Lost Shaman hosted by the lovely Samantha tells the story of Sachi Briliante, a young Filipina in Toronto who discovers her Babaylan heritage and is tasked to save her friend from an evil demon. This is a dramatized fictional story that is well worth a listen. Here is a trailer. Someone wants to take my soul. That too refers to them as those unlike us, the Wata, Anita or your demon. What else is next to me? I'm going to start seeing Mandanan Gals being for a baby to eat. That will tell me all about your people. She walks between life and death. Shaman, Hilar, Taylor, Thier, Winsh, Babaylan. A young Filipina in Toronto rediscoveres her Babaylan heritage and fights evil spirits in this modern to spend drama. Lost Shaman is now available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Again, Lugin Fam, thank you so much for listening. Make sure to follow us on all social media platforms, especially on Instagram @LuginPod for updates about the show and for extra true crime content. If you want to support the show, please consider becoming a patron on patreon.com where you can sign up for a monthly subscription. Check the link in our Instagram bio to get to our Patreon page. In exchange for becoming a patron, you get early access to regular episodes and access to bonus episodes coming real soon. If you want to make a one-off donation instead, make sure to also head over to our Instagram bio link to check out Lugin's Buy Me Coffee profile where you can make donations to support the show. As always, make sure to follow Lugin on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and do not forget to leave a five-star rating and comment on Apple Podcasts. It really helps this podcast get more reach. Again, thank you so much for the continued support for helping me reach 50,000 downloads. I'm still very much flabbergasted and shocked. Until next time, Marami Selamat at Mabuhai. For more videos, visit our website at www.mabuhai.com/dunstores.