SUPERIOR Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho has directed the Registrar of Vital Statistics to prepare a death certificate marked “presumptive” for Honorio Ricky Encabo II, 21, and to indicate that he died on July 5, 2020.
Judge Camacho made a specific finding that Encabo died by drowning on July 5, 2020.
In his order, the judge noted that on the day after Encabo’s disappearance, his torn and ragged shirt was discovered near the underwater cave into which he had disappeared, along with one of his shoes.
Searchers were able to identify the shirt and shoe, saying that they were worn by Encabo when he went on a hike to the Infinity Pool based on photos taken on July 5, 2020 that Marithel Johnson had provided to the Department of Public Safety.
Two days after Encabo’s disappearance the tattered remains of Encabo’s shorts, his underwear, and one of his shoes were found.
Each article of clothing had been torn with the shorts and underwear having signs of what appeared to be a large bite mark, the judge noted.
In her testimony, Department of Public Safety Officer Juanna Tedtaotao stated that such tearing could have been caused by sharp rocks or by wildlife.
According to the judge, “Encabo did not suffer any pain related to the bite marks and other indicia of animal predation as those things happened afterwards.”
Johnson “positively identified each article of clothing as the same apparel that Encabo had been wearing when he succumbed to the ocean,” the judge stated.
It was the Micronesian Legal Services Corporation that petitioned the court to issue a presumptive death certificate for Encabo.
MLSC attorney Zane Mowery filed the petition on behalf of Marithel A. Johnson, the mother of Honorio Ricky Encabo II’s only child.
Encabo’s body was not recovered after a four-day search conducted by the CNMI Department of Public Safety.
Encabo, who was posthumously awarded a bachelor’s degree by Northern Marianas College, was born on Saipan and was a resident of Susupe. He was the son of Yunis Ricky Encabo and Freddie Calicdan Encabo.
