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The body of a missing US Peace Corps worker was found
partially buried in a shallow grave in Ifugao on Wednesday, the
military said.
Julia Campbell, 40, had
disappeared Easter Sunday while hiking a mountain trail, and the
United States had earlier offered a $10,000 reward for information
to help find her.
Campbell’s body was discovered
with her feet protruding from the ground in the northern village of
Batad, a picturesque hamlet fringed with terraced mountainsides
planted with rice.
No cause of death was announced.
Police had earlier ruled out that the Quantico, Virginia native, who
had worked in the Philippines for two years and spoke the local
language, had been kidnapped by communist guerrillas.
“It’s a mountainous area. The
body that was found was buried in a shallow grave and some parts of
the body are jutting out so they were able to find it,” Army
spokesman Lt. Col. Jose Torres told reporters.
“Although they believe that the
body is that of Julia Campbell, let us wait for the forensics people
to declare that the body is indeed that of Julia Campbell,” Torres
said.
Maj. Gen. Rodolfo Maclang earlier
announced that Campbell had been found in Batad. The US Embassy said
it was still trying to confirm the details.
“They [search team] are
expecting forensics from the [police] to arrive anytime right
now,” Torres said.
A team of 80 rescuers using
tracker dogs and helicopters had been searching for the English
teacher, one of 137 Peace Corps volunteers working in the
Philippines.
She was last seen late afternoon
hiking on a trail leading to Batad after she was driven to the
trailhead. She also spoke to a couple of locals and bought a soft
drink from a store along the way.
A former journalist, Campbell had
been working as a teacher at a college in Legazpi City.
The mountainous northern region
is home to the Banawe rice terraces, a world-famous tourist spot.
While communist rebels once plagued the area, the crime rate has
remained low and attacks on foreigners are isolated.
In 2002, a German diplomat and
his wife were taken by gunmen from the area, and robbed of their
belongings and money before they were released unharmed.
More than a hundred policemen
from the Cordillera Regional Police Office augmented by a platoon
from the 54th Infantry Battalion and militia units in Banaue are
combing the Ifugao hinterlands for Campbell.
In her blog, Julia in the
Philippines, Campbell said that “At the age of 38, I decided to
step out of the rat race of New York, join the Peace Corps and board
a plane for Manila.”
The blog gives an account of her
experiences in Bicol, including getting almost trapped in a flood at
the height of a strong typhoon.
Campbell was helping build a
marine ecology center in Donsol, Sorsogon, before she was reassigned
to Legazpi City.
 --Anthony
Vargas, AFP
and Harley Palangchao
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