
Here’s the latest update on the Campbell tragedy which we started covering last year. According to the this report, the judge is expected to issue her decision about three months from now. Here’s the links to our previous posts on the Campbell tragedy should you want to revisit them: Missing in Ifugao; Video Updates on Julia Campbell; On Juan Dontugan’s Surrender; People vs. Dontugan I; People vs. Dontugan II; Campbell Family to Attend Dontugan Hearing.
Campbell slay trial ends; verdict to be out June 30
Melvin Gascon/Inquirer
BANAUE, Ifugao, Philippines — The trial of the accused in the murder of United States Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell ended here Wednesday, a day after her first death anniversary.
Presiding Judge Ester Piscoso-Flor of the Regional Trial Court Branch 34 gave the prosecution and the defense 30 days to file their memorandum or a summary of the evidence presented in the case.
She set the issuance of the court’s decision for June 30.
“We are glad that we are on schedule. We expect to come out with the verdict before the end of June to enable both parties get over with this trial,” Flor said.
Wednesday’s hearing, which lasted only 10 minutes, capped more than 11 months of trial of one of this mountain town’s most celebrated cases — the murder of a foreigner in a village that draws thousands of foreign and local tourists every year.
Campbell, 40, a former journalist and an English teacher then assigned in Albay, disappeared on April 8, 2007, while walking along the mountain trail leading to remote Batad village. Her decomposing body was found 10 days later, buried in a gorge about 20 meters from the trail.
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