CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga—The Philippine National Police is wrapping up in two weeks the reinvestigation ordered by Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno on the death of Mexican-Canadian chef Elisa Loyo Gutierrez in a plush resort at the Clark Freeport last December.
The second probe, which is being done at the requests of the Mexican and Canadian governments, is in its final stage, according to Senior Supt. Eric Velasquez, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Division. The CIDD in February took over the investigation started by the Angeles City police.
“We’re waiting for one report from the crime laboratory before we finalize our report,” Velasquez said when asked what was needed to conclude the work.
Suicide, which the Angeles City cited as the probable cause of Gutierrez’s death, has yet to be confirmed by the CIDD.
“We cannot finally conclude it was suicide,” Velasquez said without giving details during a phone interview.
The CIDD has done new rounds of laboratory tests, reviewed previous findings, conducted a reenactment on the crime scene and gathered additional data.
A police source privy to the reinvestigation said the findings of Mexican forensic experts were “different” from those reached in the previous investigation.
For instance, a test completed on February 9 or before the reinvestigation was began showed that the DNA profile generated from four blood samples indicated those all came from Gutierrez, 26 and a chef at the Fontana Leisure Park in Clark.
The findings are being compared, the source said, adding that the investigators had also reviewed the diary and mobile phone of Gutierrez for possible leads.
However, Velasquez said the Mexican forensic experts did not conduct a physical investigation, laboratory analysis or made any findings.
“They only gave opinions and hindsight,” he said.
He said the CIDD was exerting best efforts on the case because the Mexican and Canadian governments were “both interested” in seeing it solved.
Lucia, a sister of Gutierrez, told this correspondent by email that she and her relatives in Canada had doubts their kin took her own life.
Two male workers who followed a trail of foul smell found her lifeless body hanging from a metal brace attached on the ceiling of one of the rooms at the Fontana convention center on Dec. 26. This was three days since her roommate, fellow chef Sandra Andrychuck, reported her missing. A phone cable was looped around her neck. She had two stab wounds on her neck, two more on the chest and abdomen and four others on the wrists.
Her stepfather, Dan Somerfield, said Gutierrez reported getting death threats in October after she exposed several employees who stole meat from the kitchen and got fired and sued for the wrongdoing.
Chief Insp. Rene Aspe, then the commander of the Angeles City police, said in January that investigators have yet to explore that angle.
A case review showed, though, that Gutierrez was not among the complainant or informant in the case for qualified theft filed against a Filipino chef and three other employees last November, Aspe had said.
Fontana general manager Matthew Lai had declined an interview on the Nov. 13 meat stealing incident or on Gutierrez’s supposed expose about it.
The second probe, which is being done at the requests of the Mexican and Canadian governments, is in its final stage, according to Senior Supt. Eric Velasquez, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Division. The CIDD in February took over the investigation started by the Angeles City police.
“We’re waiting for one report from the crime laboratory before we finalize our report,” Velasquez said when asked what was needed to conclude the work.
Suicide, which the Angeles City cited as the probable cause of Gutierrez’s death, has yet to be confirmed by the CIDD.
“We cannot finally conclude it was suicide,” Velasquez said without giving details during a phone interview.
The CIDD has done new rounds of laboratory tests, reviewed previous findings, conducted a reenactment on the crime scene and gathered additional data.
A police source privy to the reinvestigation said the findings of Mexican forensic experts were “different” from those reached in the previous investigation.
For instance, a test completed on February 9 or before the reinvestigation was began showed that the DNA profile generated from four blood samples indicated those all came from Gutierrez, 26 and a chef at the Fontana Leisure Park in Clark.
The findings are being compared, the source said, adding that the investigators had also reviewed the diary and mobile phone of Gutierrez for possible leads.
However, Velasquez said the Mexican forensic experts did not conduct a physical investigation, laboratory analysis or made any findings.
“They only gave opinions and hindsight,” he said.
He said the CIDD was exerting best efforts on the case because the Mexican and Canadian governments were “both interested” in seeing it solved.
Lucia, a sister of Gutierrez, told this correspondent by email that she and her relatives in Canada had doubts their kin took her own life.
Two male workers who followed a trail of foul smell found her lifeless body hanging from a metal brace attached on the ceiling of one of the rooms at the Fontana convention center on Dec. 26. This was three days since her roommate, fellow chef Sandra Andrychuck, reported her missing. A phone cable was looped around her neck. She had two stab wounds on her neck, two more on the chest and abdomen and four others on the wrists.
Her stepfather, Dan Somerfield, said Gutierrez reported getting death threats in October after she exposed several employees who stole meat from the kitchen and got fired and sued for the wrongdoing.
Chief Insp. Rene Aspe, then the commander of the Angeles City police, said in January that investigators have yet to explore that angle.
A case review showed, though, that Gutierrez was not among the complainant or informant in the case for qualified theft filed against a Filipino chef and three other employees last November, Aspe had said.
Fontana general manager Matthew Lai had declined an interview on the Nov. 13 meat stealing incident or on Gutierrez’s supposed expose about it.
