Father Douglas Leslie Rowe
ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 28, 2012) – The Philippine police ruled out foul play in the death of a well-known Australian priest found floating in a river in the central Filipino province of Cebu.
Officials said Father Douglas Leslie Rowe, 69, was found last week in a river near the village of Can-asuhan, in Carcar City. Rowe, of the Perth suburb of Midland, was the founder of the Patrist Societies of the Sons and Daughters of God the Father church which is under the Archdiocese of Perth, has built up congregations in the Philippines and Kenya.
“Based on our forensic findings, the priest apparently fell on the river and drowned after suffering a heart attack,” police officer Rosendo Binondo told the Mindanao Examiner.
Police said just before his death, Father Rowe was inspecting land the church was interested in buying with Sister Jan Rebutaso and an estate broker, Sunshine Hoyo. He was alive when they left him near the river to take pictures of the land.
In the autopsy report, Binondo said the cause of the death is due to “myocardial infarction and drowning.”
He said the priest also had contusion on his forehead and mass of blood or hematoma in the right eye probably from the fall. (Mindanao Examiner)
20