Death and the Maiden
By Maricar Cinco
A bag of puto bumbong (purple rice cakes) helped investigators track down the killers of 20-year-old Cyrish Magalang, who had bought the steamed delicacy as pasalubong on the night she was murdered.
A bag of puto bumbong (purple rice cakes) helped investigators track down the killers of 20-year-old Cyrish Magalang, who had bought the steamed delicacy as pasalubong on the night she was murdered.
The circumstances were so similar that police investigators and headline writers couldn’t resist describing the murder victim as “Ang babae sa septic tank.” After all, a movie of the same title had become a big hit, an improbable black comedy that won for its female lead an international award.
“Inauspicious” is the word that believers in feng shui associate with the number 4. In Chinese, the word for “four” sounds like the Chinese term for death and can therefore carry a curse.
The calculator used by the Virginia Tech student killer is up for sale on the Internet along with a lock of hair snipped from notorious assassin Charles Manson and letters from several serial killers.
Last week, I received two e-mails, one from a male and another from a female reader who had very similar tragic experiences. Both of them had a parent murdered and their lives were forever changed as a result. The male reader, who gave his name as simply “J”, witnessed his mother murdered in front of [...]
