Missing woman found

The woman who was reported missing has been found safe, according to the Department of Public Safety.

DPS initially reported that Kagman III resident Salaneta Wessel was missing and that she was last seen on March 16, at around 11am in Susupe near the Department of Corrections building.

Fortunately, at around 9:53am yesterday morning, police were able to locate Wessel and that she was safe and sound.

DPS did not provide any additional details.

Fortunately, Wessel did not suffer the same fate as the last missing individual reported, 67-year-old Jesus Pinaula Rios.

Rios, who went missing on Feb. 5, was found nearly a week later.

After days of searching, Rios’ decomposing body was found beneath bushes near a compound across the Happy Market on Feb. 10, which authorities interpret to mean he had been dead for a while.

Initially, Rios’ death was treated as a homicide, but nearly two weeks ago, DPS Criminal Bureau Investigations commander Capt. Jeffrey Olopai stated that DPS no longer treats the case as a homicide because, based on the findings reported by a local examiner, there was no trauma to the body and there were no obvious signs of foul play.

Olopai noted that the medical examiner, whom he did not identify, did an external investigation on Rios’ remains but performed no autopsy on the body.

“There was an external examination conducted on the deceased on Feb. 27, and from the findings of our local examiner, there was no indication of foul play; there was no trauma to the deceased at the time of the examination,” he said.