Flight attendant's last hours before being found dead in hotel bathtub
WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT: The final hours before a flight attendant was found dead in a hotel bathtub after being allegedly raped by 11 men have been captured on security footage.
Christine Angelica Dacera, who worked for Philippine Airlines, spent her final night celebrating the new year with friends at the City Garden Hotel in Makati, Phillipines.
The 23-year-old was discovered the next morning in a hotel tub covered in bruises and cuts, including on her thighs and knees.
On New Year’s Eve night she was captured on hotel security footage stumbling down a corridor with a male friend before they stopped at a lift.
The man depicted pressed the button to order the lift, before Ms Dacera leans in to kiss him multiple times.
Initial reports found the young flight attendant had suffered from an aneurysm, and while that was described as a secondary cause of death Makati police were investigating whether she had been gang raped and killed.
Makati City police chief Colonel Harold Depositar told the Philippine Daily Inquirer Ms Dacera had “lacerations and sperm in her genitalia”.
Of the 11 suspects charged, three were the 23-year-old’s friends, and all are believed to have attended a party with Ms Dacera, Col Depositar told News Strait Times.
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Her three friends have been released since their initial arrest, with the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office referring the case back to police for further investigation, local publication News Info reported.
“After a thorough evaluation of the facts and evidence presented during inquest proceedings, the Office of the City Prosecutor, Makati City resolved to refer the case for further investigation and to release the arrested persons from detention,” Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento said in a statement.
The other eight men, who police said stayed in the two rooms adjacent to Ms Dacera, have not been found.
"The others were practically strangers to her, as they were only known to her three friends,” Col Depositar said.
One of Ms Dacera’s friends refuted allegations he was involved in sexually motivated foul play suspected of causing her death because he was gay.
“How did it become rape? I am gay. I never had sex with any woman ever in my life,” a translation of his comment stated.
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