Quitugua was detained in local prison sometime in November 2010 and last July.
The relatives said they didn’t know what the charges were against, or the basis for, his detention.
Variety checked with the Superior Court but found no records regarding cases involving Quitugua that occurred in Nov. 2010 or last July.
The Departments of Public Safety and the Corrections had yet to respond to inquiries of this reporter.
“They promised to kill me,” Biadang quoted her uncle as telling her, shortly after he was released from prison last July.
“Somebody wants to kill me. Someday, he will kill me,” Biadang further quoted her uncle as saying.
She said her uncle walked to her residence in Susupe from the jail.
He was limping and pointing to his ribs, she added.
“His ribs might have been broken already,” she said.
Her uncle told her that some people were always kicking him.
“Some people were always beating him up,” Mangohig said.
Although authorities had yet to confirm that the human remains found in Kagman belonged to their uncle, his nieces said “they could feel his ‘presence.’ ”
Birthday
The nieces said their Uncle Rick’s 72nd birthday was last Aug. 10.
But Biadang said she last saw her uncle the day he was released from prison last July.
A neighbor of the victim called Mangohig’s partner early this month to inform them that he had not seen Quitugua for the past two weeks.
Quitugua lived on a 1,000-square- meter lot awarded to him by the Department of Lands in 1998.
There are two tin shacks on the property.
After the larger shack’s roof fell down, Quitugua moved into the smaller tin shack.
Loves to walk, reads newspaper
Quitugua would walk from his shack to a store near Kagman High School or to the Kagman market, whenever he could not find an item from the nearby CYC store.
A resident in the Kagman area where the human remains and an identification card belonging to Quitugua were found on Sunday, said it was the same spot where the old man would usually rest and read a newspaper under the shade.
Another resident told Variety that Quitugua would also stop to rest at an abandoned house near his shack.
Sometimes, he would be seen at a shack near CYC store, reading a newspaper.
Like a hermit
A neighbor told Variety that Quitugua lived like a hermit.
The victim’s nephew, Elbert Borja Quitugua, agreed, adding: “He lived in his own world.”
Elbert Quitugua said his uncle would refuse invitations or visits by relatives.
But he said he met his uncle in May during the search for the missing children, Faloma and Maleina Luhk, Elbert Quitugua’s granddaughters.
He said he last saw his uncle at CYC store last July.
Some children would throw rocks at, or rob, his house, he added.
“Delinquents in their neighborhood were always harassing, teasing, or robbing him,” Elbert Quitugua said.
“He is a very quiet person. He likes to be alone. Family members visit him once in a while. He doesn’t like to party. He loves to walk and to read the newspaper.”
Elbert Quitugua at the same time said he wanted to apologize for describing Department of Public Safety Commissioner Ramon C. Mafnas as being “arrogant” last Sunday.
“I am the one who was arrogant because I was demanding for an answer. I apologize for that,” Elbert Quitugua told Variety.
An e-mail yesterday from Crime Stoppers coordinator Jason T. Tarkong stated that Mafnas “wanted to make the record clear that this case is being treated as a homicide not classified as a homicide.”
