FORMER Public Works undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral, a key figure in the flood control bribery scandal, most likely slid and fell into a ravine in Benguet province and was not pushed to her death. Cabral was found dead at the bottom of a ravine at a stop along Kennon Road in Tuba on the evening of Dec. 18. In a press conference at Camp Crame in Quezon City, PNP Forensic Group officer-in-charge Col. Pierre Paul Carpio said a 3D scanning of the crime scene showed that Cabral fell to a point only 0.2 meters away from the base of the ravine and 16.9 meters in height from where she was last seen. The police interpretation was supported by the aberrations seen on Cabral’s hands and on her back that she bumped onto something first before she fell to the ground, Carpio said. A photo of the scene showed a big rock just right by where Cabral fell. If she were pushed, she would have hit the rock, Caprio said. “That is such a big rock; if she were pushed, she would have stumbled upon it,” he said in Filipino. Carpio said the steep ravine in Camp 5 had an 8.58-degree slope and was 16.9 meters high, equivalent to about six to nine floors. Cabral died of blunt traumatic injuries of the head, neck, left, upper and lower extremities due to the fall. Her time of death was recorded between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Dec. 18, based on postmortem findings. Apart from her primary injuries, she also sustained secondary injuries such as fractures, contusions, and abrasions in her hand and back. She also had subdural hemorrhage because of the vertical or the longitudinal access impact. “In this case our medico-legal confirms that the wound or injuries sustained were of the same age,” Carpio said in Filipino. “At the same time, the correlation of our medico-legal, the autopsy findings, our field-scanning and our toxicology examination and even the height, the impact, what her position was before or even during the impact, confirms that it was indeed a first fall injury that occurred to our cadaver or to our victim, Usec. Maria Catalina Cabral,” Carpio told reporters. Carpio rejected insinuations that Cabral might have been pushed to her death, saying her body was found between 0.2 meters and 0.8 meters from the base of the ravine. “The correlation you can see is that the distance of our victim’s body or cadaver is around only 0.2 meters around the base of the ravine. So if she was pushed, chances are she’ll go farther away from where she was found. So you can see here that her hand had scratches and even her back had scratches. So the probability that she slipped is high,” he said in Filipino. A toxicology report from the PNP earlier showed Cabral’s body tested positive for an antidepressant drug. Cabral was linked to alleged irregularities in flood control and infrastructure projects, but she denied receiving kickbacks. Carpio would not say, however, if they thought her death was suicide or an accident. Family did not cooperate Carpio also said no one in the family of the late undersecretary volunteered to give specimens for DNA analysis. Carpio said the forensic group had exhausted all efforts in requesting the family, both ascendants and descendants for DNA specimens but “saw no one volunteered from their side.” Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla earlier confirmed that the remains found down the 16.9-meter ravine along Camp 5 were indeed Cabral’s. Despite positive identification by the family, Remulla pushed for an autopsy to make sure it was not another case of fake death. Apart from the family’s identification, fingerprint records also matched that of the woman found at the crime scene.