Senior Supt. Marietto Valerio, Iloilo City Police director, said he is still exploring all avenues to unearth the veracity of the claims of year-old Mary Elizabeth Jones that she was "kidnapped, beaten and forced into prostitution after being duped by a Facebook invitation to join a martial arts school. Jones' allegations that she was "held captive in a tiny, filthy room for five and a half months and forced to have sex with up to nine men a day, after being kidnapped in the Philippines" came out on the September 20, issue of the New Zealand Herald.
The New Zealand Herald, a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, is considered the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand. According to its online edition nzherald.
Jones was robbed of her belongings and thrown into the bug-infested room," the newspaper report stated. Further, "she was visited by up to nine men a day and forced to have sex with them. Jones claimed that, five months after being rescued, she shared her story to serve as a warning for others who "may be tempted" by similar invitations. I wish I could have just died in the Philippines rather than go on living like this," Jones was quoted by the newspaper while recovering at a boarding house in Mangere.
Immediately after receiving the information, Valerio ordered an investigation. In a check made with the Bureau of Immigration, it turned out that Jones arrived in the country last February 3, She checked in the next day at Eros Pension House at Gen.
Luna St. According to reports received by the ICPO, Jones checked in with a man, who was believed to be her boyfriend. She checked out with the same man last February 6, but a day before February 5 personnel of the pension house called for police assistance upon hearing a woman crying from one of the rooms.
