Cebu is the primary center of Christianity in the Philippines.

The city is rich in history, including the 1521 visit of the famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

One of its municipalities is called Minglanilla, and it was here that a six-year-old girl named Ella Joy Pique lived.

On Tuesday, February 8, 2011, Ella Joy’s day began normally.

After breakfast, she went to her school, Calajo-an Elementary School. She returned home for lunch and then went back to school.

According to her father, Renante, he had spoken to his daughter and told her he couldn’t pick her up from school that day.

He had an unexpected task at work. We can only speculate that Ella Joy’s school was close to their home, which is why Renante felt comfortable letting her walk.

The Abduction

At 4:00 PM, classes ended. Knowing no one was coming for her, Ella Joy walked home with her friends, including two twin brothers.

While they were walking, a black vehicle stopped beside them. According to the twins’ testimony, a man and a woman inside offered Ella two 50-peso bills to get into the car.

When Ella accepted the money, she got into the vehicle and said goodbye to her friends.

At 6:00 PM, Renante arrived home but did not see Ella Joy. Like any parent, he immediately panicked and felt a sense of dread.

He and his wife contacted the police to report their daughter missing. They also searched the school, hoping to find her there, but darkness fell, and they still had not found their child.

The next day, Renante went to his workplace and printed missing person posters to help in the search for Ella.

But on that same day, a caretaker at a beach in a neighboring barangay discovered what looked like a package near a cliff.

It was wrapped in a white blanket and tied tightly with wires. Onlookers initially thought it contained a dead pig or dog.

But when they retrieved the package, a crowd gathered, and they discovered it was not an animal, but the lifeless body of a child.

A Father’s Worst Fear

The police were immediately contacted and responded to the scene. After their initial investigation, they confirmed the contents were the body of a child.

Not far from where the body was dumped, they found a school bag containing a school uniform, undergarments, books, notebooks, and two 50-peso bills.

The news spread quickly, reaching the neighboring barangay where Renante was still searching for his daughter.

The police brought the body to the morgue. When Renante arrived at the police station to ask for leads on his missing child, he was told about the body found in the next barangay.

Though terrified, Renante went with the police to the morgue to confirm if it was his missing daughter.

The police showed him the school bag, which he confirmed belonged to Ella Joy.

He was then taken into the morgue, where he collapsed in grief, anger, and tears upon seeing his daughter’s lifeless body.

Witnesses said that while weeping, Renante cried out, “Who could do this to you, my child?”

He also shouted that he blamed himself for not picking her up from school.

Before the day ended, Ella Joy’s body was brought home. Her mother, Ligaya, was distraught.

In her profound grief over Ella Joy’s horrific fate, she was in denial, insisting the body in front of her was not her daughter.

According to reports, when she saw Ella Joy’s swollen face, she cried out, “This is not my child!”

The First Botched Arrest

On the third day of the investigation, the police gathered five witnesses, including the two twin brothers who were last with Ella Joy.

With the help of the police, the children described the man and woman inside the black car.

Based on the composite police sketch, the couple appeared to be a foreigner and a Filipina.

The sketch was released to all police stations in Cebu. On February 12, a Norwegian national and his Filipina fiancée were arrested at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

From the airport, the couple was taken to the Cebu Provincial Police Office for questioning.

On February 15, the police brought in the child witnesses, who confirmed that the couple was the same two people inside the black car.

However, many were skeptical of the result, as the sketch bore no resemblance to the two people arrested.

The couple vehemently denied any involvement. They stated they didn’t even know there was a place in Cebu called Minglanilla.

In the middle of the interrogation, the Norwegian spontaneously removed his t-shirt to show he had no tattoos, in contrast to the tattoo depicted in the police sketch.

He insisted that he and his Filipina nurse fiancée were on their way to Hong Kong to celebrate Valentine’s Day as they had just gotten engaged.

He maintained that on the day of the crime, they were inside the Waterfront Hotel all day.

A Public Rebuke

Even without a formal complaint, the Norwegian Embassy immediately provided a lawyer for their citizen.

The couple’s lawyer, Salvador Solima, argued that the police could not detain the two without a formal complaint or sufficient evidence, as they could be sued for illegal detention.

He could not help but criticize the police for accusing them so quickly without strong evidence, basing the arrest merely on a police sketch provided by children.

He added that the children might have been brainwashed by the police, who were desperate to solve the case quickly.

A few days later, the couple was officially charged with kidnapping and homicide at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, based on the children’s identification.

However, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, who doubted the police work, requested that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) join the probe.

The NBI quickly found sufficient evidence proving the couple had no involvement in Ella Joy’s case.

The evidence included photographs of the couple, CCTV footage, and receipts proving they had not left the hotel on the day the crime occurred.

When the governor learned of the NBI’s findings, she was furious with the local Cebu police over their handling of the investigation.

She criticized their hasty filing of charges despite the lack of evidence. The Senior Superintendent of the police, however, maintained they had enough evidence.

After a meeting in Governor Garcia’s office, a reporter noted that the governor told the superintendent she had lost all confidence in the police.

Following that meeting, the superintendent resigned from his position.

On February 28, the case against the Norwegian and his Filipina fiancée was dismissed. They were released that same day after 17 days in detention.

The couple did not file a complaint against the police, only asking that a thorough investigation be conducted to find Ella Joy’s real killers.

A New Set of Suspects

The investigation was restarted. This time, a new task force was formed.

They gathered new witnesses, and after a few days, the names of another foreigner and Filipina surfaced: Ian Charles Griffiths, a British national, and Bella Ruby Santos, a native of Naga City, Cebu.

In March 2011, police went to the house of Bella Ruby’s relatives in Naga City to confiscate her black Pajero.

The evidence was sent to Camp Crame for a thorough investigation. However, a few days later, Bella Ruby’s family filed a case.

Their lawyer had discovered that the search warrant used by the police was null and void, as it only specified the vehicle and did not include the house.

For the first time, Bella Ruby faced the press and media, denying any involvement in Ella Joy’s death, claiming they were in Naga City when the crime happened.

Their lawyer presented their itinerary and flight details. According to the details, they arrived in Manila from Singapore on February 2 and flew to Cebu the same day.

On February 4, they went to Palawan but returned to Cebu on February 6, planning to fly back to Singapore on February 7.

However, they arrived late at the airport, missed their flight, and had to rebook for February 9. Their lawyer stated they were in Naga City from February 7 to February 8.

The Second Failed Case

On April 11, 2011, Bella Ruby and her partner, Ian Griffiths, were officially charged.

The prosecutor’s office also issued a hold and departure order to prevent them from leaving the country.

Police claimed that their investigation showed Bella Ruby’s house was a location for cybersex operations.

They added that according to a witness, hours before Ella Joy was kidnapped, the two had attempted to abduct another child in Naga City, who managed to escape.

Another witness, who was on a motorcycle, claimed to have seen the black Pajero driving towards Minglanilla.

Police theorized this is where the two saw Ella Joy and lured her with the two 50-peso bills.

They claimed the couple brought Ella Joy back to Naga City, where they forced her to pose indecently online, and when the child refused, they struck her in the head with a hard object, killing her.

Two more witnesses emerged, claiming that while riding a motorcycle early on February 9, they saw Griffiths and Bella Ruby dumping an object off a cliff, confirming they were using the black Pajero.

Investigators also insisted that the couple had booked a last-minute flight out of the country on February 9 to escape.

Bella Ruby attended the subsequent hearings alone, as Ian Griffiths had reportedly already managed to leave the country.

He was later arrested in London and charged with Ella Joy’s murder, but he could not be extradited and was set to be tried in a London court.

He was later released on bail, though a judge ordered him not to speak to anyone but his lawyer.

A year passed, and on the first anniversary of Ella Joy’s death, there was still no progress.

In April 2012, the autopsy results were finally made public. The medical examiner stated that two people likely committed the crime.

The victim received multiple blows to her head, but the cause of death was a fatal blow to the back of her head.

She also had bruises on her cheeks and arms, indicating she was held tightly while being beaten.

In August 2012, police released the DNA testing results from Bella Ruby’s vehicle, but they came back negative. There were no traces of Ella Joy’s bloodstains in the car.

A Cold Case

Due to this lack of strong evidence, Bella Ruby’s lawyers immediately requested a bail hearing.

The hearing was contentious, with constant arguments between the two camps, forcing the judge to delay a decision.

The year 2012 ended with no progress, and the case was overshadowed by other national issues.

In March 2013, the case regained media attention when the Pique family sought 50 million pesos in damages from Bella Ruby’s camp.

The amount eventually went down to 3.5 million. Bella Ruby’s lawyers agreed to the amount, but the money was not given.

In August 2013, the judge allowed Bella Ruby to post bail for 500,000 pesos.

On October 10, 2014, the trial concluded. Judge Esther Veloso acquitted Bella Ruby due to a lack of strong evidence.

The judge did not believe the testimonies of the child witnesses, noting that the children had positively identified both the first innocent couple and the second couple (Griffiths and Santos).

She concluded that the children would likely identify any foreigner and Filipina pair put in front of them.

There was also no forensic evidence linking the suspects to the crime.

After the case, Bella Ruby was released, and her 500,000-peso bail was returned.

The outcome devastated the Pique family. To this day, no one has been caught, and Ella Joy’s case is considered a cold case.