‘No closure until we get justice’, says family of murdered Dubai woman on first death anniversary

The husband and children of Lorna Lim Varona will spend the day remembering her and all the lessons they have learned from her.

Lorna Lim Varona was found stabbed to death in the boot of her car on August 31 last year. Courtesy Varona family

The family of murder victim Lorna Lim Varona will come together in Manila today to mark the first anniversary of her death.

The Dubai businesswoman was found stabbed to death in the boot of her car on August 31 last year.

The Filipina had been missing for nearly a week when her battered body was found stuffed in a bag in the boot of her green Jaguar S-Type in Sharjah’s Industrial Area 11.

Her husband Pablo Varona, 66, and their daughter Maria Liza, 25, flew from Dubai to Manila, where she is buried,  for the anniversary.

Lorna’s eldest daughter, Maria Lourdes, 30, was unable to attend.

“I wish I’m with them right now,” she said. “Our mom’s death has changed our lives drastically and a lot has happened a year after her passing.”

The anniversary will be a family affair that celebrates Lorna’s life, said her son Joseph Luke, 28, a property manager in Manila.

His brother Joseph Louis, 27, who now works in Hong Kong, will also be present for the memorial mass at San Antonio Parish Church in Paranaque City. Before the service, the family will visit Lorna’s tomb at Manila Memorial Park.

“We will spend the day to remember her and the good memories,” Joseph Luke said. “We will also remember the lessons we’ve learnt from her.”

The family has jointly taken on the responsibility of running Lorna’s businesses in the UAE and the Philippines.

“We’re aware that our parents will not be there for us for ever,” Joseph Luke said. “But we were not prepared when our mom left us last year, sooner than we had expected.”

Maria Lourdes said she and her sister were still learning the ropes at their mother’s businesses.

“My sister and I had big shoes to fill, but surprisingly we were able to live up to the challenge because it was like she was always guiding and helping us along the way,” she said.

“Thanks to the training we got from her, I’m confident we will eventually figure everything out and run the businesses the way she would have wanted us to.”

Mr Varona and Joseph Luke, Joseph Louis and Maria Liza yesterday attended mass at San Antonio Parish Church, with two relatives.

“Everyone has moved on from her loss,” Joseph Luke said. “The court case is still ongoing and until there is justice, the family will not get closure.”

Mr Varona has attended two court hearings in Dubai in June and last month. The next hearing is scheduled for September 23, when the judge is expected to interrogate the forensic doctor and CID officers who handled the case.

At the June hearing, prosecutors accused R?A, 49, from the Philippines, of murdering Lorna because she was pressuring him to repay a debt. They said he stabbed her in the stomach and threw her through the window of a flat. He went downstairs and, finding her still alive, finished her off by stabbing her in the neck.

After the killing, he took the keys to her car, shoved her in the boot and drove to his house in Al Rigga, where he had lunch with his wife, the court heard. He later drove the car to Sharjah’s Industrial Area 11 and dumped it.

The accused initially denied killing Lorna but confessed after five hours of interrogation, police said.

In court he denied a charge of premeditated murder.

“Everybody is still hurt from what happened but we continue to remind ourselves that we are still a family,” Joseph Luke said. “It’s just that we lost a crucial member.”

Although the family is separated by distance, Mr Varona phones his two sons  at least once a week. He lives with his two daughters in Dubai, Maria Lourdes said.

“Our father would also make sure that we continue our family’s tradition to hear mass every Friday and eat out afterwards,” she said.

“But I miss my mom’s delicious cooking, our mother-daughter moments spent at the salon and her stories – about her childhood, how she and our dad met and how we, her kids, were like when we were little.”

There will be a memorial mass in Dubai at St Mary’s Church on Saturday at 3pm.