Suspect in killing of US Peace Corps volunteer surrenders to police

Apr 27, 2007, 9:47 GMT

Manila - A suspect in the killing of a US Peace Corps volunteer in the northern Philippines surrendered to police Friday, a police spokesman said.

Juan Duntogan, 25, a woodcarver, was accompanied by his mother when he turned himself over to the provincial police office in Lagawe town in Ifugao province, 290 kilometres north of Manila.

Superintendent Joseph Adnol, a regional police spokesman, said Duntogan was currently being 'treated as both a suspect and a witness' in the death of Julia Campbell, 40.

'We have no grounds to hold him because there is no arrest warrant yet,' he said. 'We will just interview him first. We hope he can contribute to shed light on what happened to the victim.'

'Hope he'll tell the truth,' he added.

Campbell went missing on April 8 while on a hike to the famed Banaue Rice Terraces in Ifugao. Her decomposing body was found buried in a shallow grave 10 days later.

An autopsy showed that she died from severe blows to the head.

Witnesses had told investigators that they saw Duntogan fleeing from the area where Campbell's body was found.

Investigators said robbery could have been the motive for the killing.

On Thursday, Campbell's body was cremated in Manila. Her ashes are to be sent to her family, the US embassy said.

Campbell was one of 137 Peace Corps volunteers in the Philippines. She arrived in March 2005 and taught at a college in the eastern city of Legazpi.

The US embassy said more than 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in the Philippines since 1961, making it the second-oldest Peace Corps programme in the world.