By Naomi Tiburcio
The Canadian Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT), Canada’s largest homicide unit, is investigating the circumstances which led to the death of Filipino Maria Cecilia Loreto, 49, last week.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the government’s broadcasting network, said Loreto’s body was found in a park in Burnaby City, British Columbia.
Loreto was a mother who worked at a food store in Vancouver and immigrated from the Philippines.
On March 18, emergency responders went to Greentree Village Park following reports of bush and grass fire, but they instead found Loreto’s body on fire.
IHIT believes Loreto died on the evening of March 17.
“We believe that [Maria] Cecilia was in fact killed at her residence in New Westminster earlier that evening,” IHIT Corporal Frank Jang said.
Filipino Carlo Tobias, 21, and a 15-year-old youth face charges of first-degree murder and indignity to human remains. No additional information was given on the minor.
Jang said the two accused knew the victim and the death was not “random.” “We have a very good idea of what happened … but all that information, right now, isn’t for public consumption, unfortunately.”
He also reassured the public it was an isolated incident and no threat is posed to residents.
The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver earlier cascaded the information on Loreto who went missing on March 17.
Their post read: “She also goes by the names Mycel and Maricel. She was last seen in New Westminster on March 17, 2021, along 5th Ave and 9th Street. She was driving an old black Honda Civic with red lines. Let’s help each other find her po.”
Both the Consulate General and the Department of Foreign Affairs have not replied to reporters’ request for a statement.
