The Philippine National Police (PNP) Forensic Group on Monday, December 29, said it has completed the autopsy and obtained the results on the body of the late former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral.
PNP Forensic Group officer-in-charge Col. Pierre Paul Carpio said a 3D scan of Cabral’s last moments showed that she slid into the ravine, coming to rest just 0.2 meters from its base and approximately 16.9 meters below the point where she was last seen.
“In this case our medico legal confirms that the wound or injuries sustained are of the same age. At the same time, the correlation of our medico-legal, the autopsy findings, our field-scanning and our toxicology examination and even the height, the impact, what her position was before or even during the impact, provides confirmation that it was indeed a first fall injury that occurred to our cadaver or our victim, Usec. Maria Catalina Cabral,” Carpio told reporters during a press briefing at Camp Crame.
Carpio also dismissed suggestions that Cabral had been pushed, noting that her body was found between 0.2 meters and 0.8 meters from the base of the ravine along Kennon Road.
“The correlation you can see is that the distance of our victim’s body or cadaver is around only 0.2 meters around the base of the ravine. So, if someone pushes her, chances are she’ll go further away from there,” Carpio explained.
“You can see here that her hand is more scratched and even her back has scratches. So, the probability that she slipped is high. At the same time, the distance between her body and the base of the ravine was only 0.2 to 0.8 meters away,” he added.
“It confirms the possibility, the probability is very high that that’s what happened,” Carpio noted. He also mentioned that Cabral tested positive for the antidepressant drug ‘citalopram,’ prompting authorities to consider her case a suicide.
