Dubai: After more than two weeks of waiting, the family of slain businesswoman Lorna Lim Varona finally got to see her body on Saturday. But they must wait a few more days before Lorna’s body is released so that they can perform the last rites in the Philippines.
Lorna, 51, was found dead inside the trunk of her car in Sharjah with six stab wounds on August 31. Police subsequently arrested a family friend who reportedly confessed to the crime.
“When we saw her yesterday, that’s when it dawned on us that she’s really gone,” Varona’s eldest daughter, Maria Lourdes, told Gulf News.
“It was a very sad day for us, and for dad, as we were seeing mum for the first time since she was reported dead,” Maria added.
Family members also said the signs of a struggle were evident on Lorna’s face.
“Mum’s face looked tense and not relaxed at all. You could see that she really struggled before she died,” Maria said.
The family approached the Sharjah Public Prosecution again on Sunday but were told there was no guarantee that they could take Lorna’s body home this week given the nature of the case.
Lorna’s body was found by police six days after her murder.
Meanwhile, as investigations continue in Sharjah, the Varonas have appealed to authorities in the Philippines to look into alleged reports that some officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in Manila have been using her death as an excuse to offload or deny tourist visa holders from boarding flights to the UAE.
Offloading refers to actions by BI officials to prevent an individual from travelling abroad on suspicion that he or she is being trafficked.
Gulf News could not reach BI officials for comment by the time of going to press despite repeated attempts.
Although there was no clear mention of Varona’s name, the family believes there is no other person who would possibly fit the justification provided by some immigration officials that “there was a Filipina who was murdered by a fellow Filipino in Dubai” to offload passengers.
Cristy Malit, 31, Varona’s niece, told Gulf News she was enraged when her friend told her about the situation in Manila.
Her friend, who declined to be interviewed, claims she was sponsoring a relative to visit the UAE but that person was allegedly offloaded. “I got very angry when my friend told me this,” Cristy said. “It was bad enough that my aunt was murdered. But what they’re doing — using her case to scare off or offload passengers — is worse,” she said.
“There is no connection between my aunt’s death to the Immigration’s screening process. And if they find other passengers’ documents lacking, they should offload them for that reason, not for anything else,” she added.
Maria too was upset at the news. “Using my mum’s death to offload passengers [in Manila] is unacceptable,” she said. “I hope it would stop because it’s not fair to our compatriots whose only desire is to find a better life abroad.”
Last year, Gulf News had reported about some BI officials who were accused of offloading passengers without clear-cut guidelines while others were slapped with charges of extortion.
BI came out with new ‘offloading’ guidelines in January to resolve the issue following calls by overseas Filipinos, including those from the UAE, to review the ‘absolute discretion’ of the BI in offloading passengers.
