Family relief as body of murdered Dubai businesswoman to go home

A little more than a month since the murder of Filipina Lorna Lim Varona, her husband will finally be taking her home to Manila on Wednesday.

The body of Lorna Lim Varona, a 51-year-old Filipina, was found on August 31, nearly a week after she was reported missing.

DUBAI // The family of murdered Dubai businesswoman Lorna Lim Varona will finally take her body home to Manila on Wednesday.

Mrs Varona, 51, was found stuffed inside a bag in her car in Sharjah on August 31, nearly a week after she was reported missing from her family home in Mirdif. A Filipino in his 50s was arrested in Dubai and has confessed to the murder.

The woman’s daughter Maria Liza, 24, said the death certificate cited the cause of death as cardio-respiratory, with stab injuries on the chest, fractured bones, internal visceral haemorrhage and lungs haemorrhage.

“I’m happy and relieved that we now have some closure,” said Pablo Varona, 65, the dead woman’s husband. He will accompany her body on the flight in the early hours of tomorrow morning.  “For some time we did not have any idea when we could take her home.”

Their daughters Maria Lourdes, 29, and Maria Liza will be taking another Emirates flight later the same morning.

On Sunday, Mr Varona obtained a no-objection certificate for the embalming of Mrs Varona’s remains and a travel document in lieu of her lost passport from the Philippines consulate in Dubai. After embalming, the body will be brought to Dubai airport for the journey home.

The death certificate showed the direct cause of Mrs Varona’s death was cardiac arrest brought on after stab injuries to the chest.

“We’re grateful that God has paved that way for our mum to return home so she can finally be laid to rest,” said Maria Lourdes.

Sons Joseph Luke, 27, and Joseph Louis, 26, are in the Philippines to finalise the funeral arrangements.

“I’m very happy that the wait is over,” Joseph Luke said from Manila. “It took a little while but everybody is glad that she’s going home and it’s now the end of her journey.”

Mrs Varona’s seven siblings – from the UAE, the US and the Philippines – will attend funeral rites. She was known to have helped them while working in Dubai for more than 30 years.

“A lot of her friends here, in the US and in Dubai who she has influenced will come together to pay their last respects,” Mr Varona said.

The four-day wake will begin on Thursday and she will be laid to rest at the Manila Memorial Park on Monday. "After this, we look forward to justice being served," Joseph Luke said.

[e-mail]