By CESAR JOLITO III

A 20-year-old woman was found dead after an apparent drowning incident along a river at Barangay Tampalon in Negros Occidental’s Kabankalan City on the evening of January 1, police authorities reported.

Kabankalan police said the victim, a resident of Barangay Camingawan’s Purok Buslogan in the city, had been reported missing.

She was recovered at around 6:00 p.m. along the river in Purok Paghidaet.

Police said the victim’s mother told them that at about 2:00 p.m. on December 31, 2025, she instructed her daughter to deliver food to her grandmother in another barangay.

The victim, however, failed to return home several hours later.

The mother added that her daughter usually crossed the river using a bamboo raft, which was her regular means of travel to and from her grandmother’s residence.

Concerned, the family conducted a search but initially failed to locate her.

At around 5:30 p.m. on January 1, the victim’s mother received a call from a neighbor advising her to proceed to the river.

Upon arriving in the area, she discovered her daughter’s body floating in the river and identified her based on the clothes she was wearing at the time of her disappearance.

The victim was brought to Lorenzo D. Zayco District Hospital, where she was declared dead by the attending physician.

The victim’s mother believes her daughter may have accidentally fallen into the river while crossing and subsequently drowned.

The body was later brought to a funeral home for post-mortem examination./CJ, WDJ