25 Oct 2011

Call for more questioning over missing CNMI sisters

12:39 pm on 25 October 2011

The grandfather of two missing girls in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands says unless a person of interest to the case co-operates the suspected abduction won't be solved.

Five months ago, sisters Faloma and Maleina Luhk, aged ten and nine respectively, disappeared in As Teo as they waited for a morning school bus.

The Department of Public Safety and the FBI are investigating their disappearance.

The grandfather, Elbert Quitugua, says the girls' uncle, a fireman who moved to Seattle in August, is a person of interest to the case but so far hasn't co-operated with authorities.

"I think the local authorities and the federal people should really bring this person in and interrogate him as much as they can so they can make him talk. He's in the mainland and guess they've got more opportunity to make him talk over there. And I hope my sister, if she knows something, she should also turn him in. You know, put this case to a close."

Elbert Quitugua

He says the last five months have been painful to the family and he hopes there will be closure for them soon.