AN abandoned vehicle said to be related to the case of the missing Pampanga beauty pageant candidate and her Israeli boyfriend was found by authorities on Sunday night.
In a phone interview with the Inquirer.net, Capas Police chief Lt. Col. Librado Maranang Jr said “I don’t have many details yet about the abandoned vehicle found in Tarlac City. We will discuss the connection of the vehicle found last night to the case.”
In a separate interview with reporters, the Capas police chief said operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group found the abandoned vehicle along Barangay Tibag, Tarlac City.
He added that the Tarlac Police Provincial Office has already formed a committee on missing persons to expedite the investigation and determine the connection between the vehicles found and the case.
Based on previous reports, Mutya ng Pilipinas Pampanga 2024 candidate Geneva Lopez and Yitchak Cohen met someone in Tarlac to check a 20.5-hectare agricultural land that they intended to buy.
Citing the middleman the couple met, police said they were last seen around 2 p.m. on June 21, while their gray Nissan Terra sport utility vehicle (SUV) was found burning along the Capas-San Jose Road in Cristo Rey village at 2:36 a.m. on June 22.
In an earlier radio interview, Maranang revealed that police are now examining what seemed like a burned “cellphone or tablet” found inside the SUV.
He also said they were still searching for witnesses to help them locate the two.
He appealed to anyone with vital information about the alleged disappearance of the couple to come forward and cooperate with authorities.
