‘Investigators find bloodstains’

Agents from the Attorney General’s Investigative Unit had reportedly found bloodstains at a farm on Tinian where drug case witness John G. Manahane was said to have been murdered and buried, Saipan Tribune learned.

A relative of Manahane disclosed to the Saipan Tribune that bloodstains were splattered at a farmhouse occupied by a Filipino worker.

Crime scene technicians from the Department of Public Safety Saipan were reportedly summoned a few weeks ago to preserve the bloodstains for laboratory analysis, according to the relative who requested anonymity.

The relative also stated that he was told that the farmer suddenly went to the Philippines when the AGIU in August 2005 started aggressively pursuing its investigation into the mysterious disappearance of the 24-year-old Manahane.

“The farmer might be a witness. We don’t know. But why [did] he suddenly go to the Philippines?” he said.

Chief Prosecutor Jeffrey Moots confirmed yesterday that the AGIU is indeed investigating the reported disappearance of Manahane. He said investigators went to the big farm but did not find any body.

With respect to the bloodstains, Moots said he has not heard about it yet from the investigators. He added that investigation is ongoing.

John Manahane’s father, Luis Manahane, told Saipan Tribune that the AGIU advised him earlier on the need to take his blood samples for DNA testing.

But lately, Luis Manahane said, the AGIU explained that the bloodstains found would instead be sent to Guam, which has the capability to determine whether they are human blood or from animals.

If the Guam laboratory establishes that the samples are human blood, then investigators will send the samples, along with the blood samples of his or his brother’s, to Hawaii or to the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory in the U.S. mainland, he said.

A veteran police investigator, however, told Saipan Tribune that sending evidence to the FBI lab usually only causes delays in the investigation because it would take some time before the results will come out.

“I’m so anxious in trying to find out if it’s human blood or my son’s blood,” said the 48-year-old Luis Manahane, who flew two weeks ago to Saipan from Redding, California, where he works, after he was informed about the disappearance of his son.

“I’m praying everyday that the case is solved,” said the teary-eyed father as he appealed to witnesses to come forward and help AGIU investigators in locating the whereabouts of his son.

The AGIU, with the assistance of Guam police and the CNMI DPS, have been searching for the body of John Manahane, who was reported missing over the past few months.

Luis Manahane admitted that a person from Tinian informed him that the suspect or suspects allegedly killed his son then buried the body near a cliff line on Tinian.

Investigators so far have failed to find the body. A police officer told Saipan Tribune that the search would be difficult considering that the farm is too big.

A relative of John Manahane said the latter is a state witness to a drug case.

Chief prosecutor Moots said, though: “To the best of my knowledge, he was not a witness to a drug case.” But Moots said he does not know whether Manahane is a witness of other law enforcement agencies. (By Ferdie De La Torre,
Special to the Saipan Tribune.)