KANANGA, April 16 -- The town police here is digging deeper over the suspected rape-slay of a single mother in upland Rizal village on Saturday.

Staff Sgt. Rolando Lago Jr., the town police station's investigator, identified the victim as Merycris Porsalida, 22, of Rizal village. Her partly naked body was found in an open terrain, a few hundred meters away from the house, where she stays with her parents and a two-year-old daughter.

It was not yet confirmed if she was raped pending the result of a medical examination.

Lago on Monday said Porsalida's family panicked when she did not come home from work Friday night. She usually arrives at 9 p.m. after a day-long work in a local department store.

Her body was found 10 a.m. the following d...