In the midst of the 2020 pandemic, Robyn “Jang” Lucero carved out a niche for herself. The 34-year-old from Calamba, Laguna, became a trusted private driver, offering a safe and reliable service, particularly for members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

But on the night of June 28, 2020, a routine booking from three mysterious passengers would lead to a devastating incident that would spiral into one of the most complex and tragic unsolved cases in recent memory.

Jang was a hardworking and resourceful provider. When she took a booking via Facebook for a trip from Calamba to Manila, her girlfriend, Meya Amatorio, expressed her unease, but the fare was good, and Jang needed the income. She left that evening and never returned.

The next morning, after frantic and unanswered calls, Meya was contacted by the police. Jang had been found in her own car, her life tragically taken. The forensic examination revealed she had sustained 52 separate wounds, an extreme level of violence that suggested a personal and deep-seated rage from her attacker or attackers.

The case immediately went viral, and public pressure for justice was immense. The investigation quickly focused on finding the three passengers seen on CCTV getting into Jang’s car around 10 PM. The footage showed a woman getting in the front seat, and two men in the back. A blue getaway car was also spotted lingering in the area. The booking had been made through a Facebook account that was deleted immediately after the incident.

The first major break came when police arrested a woman named Ann Sheila Belarmino, identifying her from a distinctive tattoo visible on the CCTV footage. The arrest revealed a tangled personal drama: Belarmino was the recent ex-girlfriend of Jang’s current partner, Meya.

Belarmino admitted she was hurt by the breakup but vehemently denied any involvement in the incident. Despite the police’s initial confidence, the prosecutor ordered Belarmino’s release due to a lack of sufficient evidence. The first and most promising lead had collapsed, leaving the investigation back at square one.

With no other suspects, and fueled by their grief, Jang’s family began to publicly call for investigators to look closer at the girlfriend, Meya Amatorio. They alleged that the relationship between Jang and Meya had been tumultuous. This shifted the focus of public suspicion, and Meya found herself at the center of a storm of online harassment and threats, forcing her and her family into hiding.

Just as this new line of inquiry began, the case took a shocking and violent turn. On July 29, 2020, a group of men forcibly abducted Meya and her nephew, Adrian Ramos, from their family compound in broad daylight. The terrifying event was captured on a neighbor’s CCTV.

A few days later, on August 3, Adrian Ramos’s body was found. He had been subjected to a brutal ordeal before his life was taken, and a cardboard sign was left on his body with the chilling words, “Don’t be like me, killer, pusher, hoodlum.” Meya Amatorio was never seen again and remains a missing person to this day.

The case of Jang Lucero had now become hopelessly entangled with a second, equally horrific crime. The quest for answers was now a labyrinth of unanswered questions. Was Meya a victim of the same people who harmed Jang, silenced before she could reveal what she knew? Or was her disappearance connected to something else entirely?

In October 2020, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) made a cryptic announcement that they had arrested a suspect in Adrian Ramos’s case, but they did not release a name. Since then, official updates have ceased. The trail has gone cold.

The tragic incident that took Jang Lucero’s life, which began with a search for three masked passengers, has been overshadowed by another layer of tragedy, leaving two families grieving and a public with no clear answers or justice.