Police found a vehicle linked to missing beauty queen in Tarlac
Geneva Lopez, a Mutya candidate in Pampanga in 2023, and her Israeli boyfriend
Courtesy of Presy Carreon Lopez/Fb
Daily TribuneGeneva Lopez, a Mutya candidate in Pampanga in 2023, and her Israeli boyfriend
Courtesy of Presy Carreon Lopez/Fb
The police authorities found an abandoned vehicle linked to the disappearances of a Pampanga beauty queen and her boyfriend in Tarlac City.
Capas Police Chief LtCol. Librado Manarang said the Tarlac Provincial Office has created a committee on missing persons to expedite the investigation of the disappearances of Pampanga’s Mutya ng Pilipinas candidate Geneva Lopez her fiancée Yitzchak Cohen.
“We are still looking for CCTVs for the backtracking…Right now, based on the report, operatives found a vehicle in Barangay Tibag, Tarlac City in the Province of Tarlac,” Manarang said in Filipino.
“As of now, I still don't have concrete details regarding the abandoned vehicle that was found,” he added.
Riding an SUV Lopez, 26, and Cohen, 37, were last seen on 21 June when they left Angeles City, Pampanga, and drove to Capas, Tarlac to check the land property they were planning to purchase.
The couple’s vehicle was discovered burning on 22 June at 2:36 a.m. along the Capas-San Jose Road in Cristo Rey village.
Manarang said authorities had obtained testimony from the middleman who assisted the couple in buying the property.
"In the affidavit and testimony, we interviewed the middleman. On June 21, around 2 to 3 p.m., the middleman met the couple and they went to Barangay Armenia, Tarlac City where they checked the property that the two were going to buy," he said.
“The couple met only the middleman in the very area where they are supposed to buy land,” he added.
Manarang disclosed the middleman was a former police officer who was assigned to Angeles City, but they have no information yet as to why the middleman left the service.
“He is also a businessman and a property agent… Yes, the middleman used to be a police officer. Before the middleman was removed from the service, he was assigned to Angeles City Police Office,” he said.
Manarang said they already consolidated the CCTV footage to check on the movements of the couple’s vehicle.
"We also got footage where they met up in the town of Capas and what time they went to the place where they were going to buy land," he added.
However, the authorities haven’t yet retrieved any CCTV footage after the vehicle was burned.
The burned vehicle was found 2 to 3 kilometers away from the land property they checked, according to Manarang.
“Until now, we are still consolidating the CCTV footage that we were able to retrieve. We are conducting backtracking and forward tracking,” he said.