MAKATI CITY, Philippines — A Philippine Airlines flight attendant was gang-raped and murdered in a hotel room following a New Year’s Eve party — and 11 men have been charged for the heinous attack, according to reports.
Christine Angelica Dacera, 23, was found unconscious in the empty bathtub of her room in Makati City early Jan. 1, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported. Friends and hotel staff raced her to a nearby hospital, where she was later pronounced dead, officials told the news organization.
“Based on initial investigation, sexual abuse happened,” Philippine National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Ilderbrandi Usana told the paper.
She had “lacerations and sperm in her genitalia” as well as scratches on her arms and legs, police said.
Makati City police on Monday filed a provisional charge of rape with homicide against 11 men who were with her during the party, the paper said.
Three of them were arrested while the others were still being hunted, Makati City police chief Col. Harold Deposita told the Daily Inquirer.
“Only three of them were Dacera’s friends. The others were practically strangers to her, as they were only known to her three friends,” the police chief said.
Dacera was a flight attendant for Philippine Airlines (PAL) Express, which said it “mourns the tragic death.”
“Our desire is for the truth to come out in the interest of justice,” the company told the paper Tuesday, according to New York Post.
(Instagram/@xtinedacera)
Her mother, Sharon Dacera, appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte, saying her daughter had been “treated like a pig” in the “barbaric” crime.
“Christine does not deserve this brutality … they need to be punished,” the grieving mother said.