A female student was found naked and stabbed to death in her university accommodation in a suspected murder-rape in the Philippines.

Eden Joy Villacete, 21, was studying architecture while staying alone in an apartment in the town of San Jose in Occidental Mindoro province.

However, the young woman sparked concern with her parents when she failed to answer their messages and calls for several days. Her female roommate had left on a trip and there was no other way to reach her.

Worried mother Violeta Villacete rushed to the building to check on her daughter on Friday, June 30. But when she entered the room and climbed the loft to Eden's bed, she was horrified to find her butchered daughter in a pool of blood.

Eden was lying face-down naked on a mattress. Her face had been smothered with a pillow, while her blood from multiple stab wounds had soaked through the foam bed. A putrid odour hung over the room as the body was already in an advanced state of decomposition.

San Jose police arrived to recover Eden's cadaver for a post-mortem examination, which found six stab wounds on her back and head. A broken knife believed to be the murder weapon was also retrieved on the floor. It bore no fingerprints, forensics officers said.

Investigators said the victim's phone and laptop were also missing from her room. There were reportedly no signs of forced entry.

Occidental Mindoro Police Director Colonel Jun Dexter Danao said a special investigation task force has been created to solve the crime that sparked outrage in the local community. He said a 'person of interest' had been found through CCTV footage but they are still interrogating them.

The police chief said: 'We found a person walking near the compound, but not directly inside the apartment. We are trying to determine this person's identity.

'That was on June 28, Wednesday, at around 3:40 am. The suspect was walking away from the site, and was the only one who appeared on footage.'

Lieutenant Colonel Michael Carnoso, chief of the San Jose police station, added: 'Our goal now is to interview all the occupants of the apartment because that's what we saw on CCTV. We will ask them about the person on a motorcycle who was seen near the compound, and if he was a visitor at the apartment.'

Eden, a fifth-year architecture student at the Occidental Mindoro State College, was described as 'kind, well-behaved, and obedient' by her friends and family. She was supposed to graduate from the grueling academic course this year and land her dream engineering job to help her parents earn money for their low-income household.

Distraught mum Violeta said through tears: 'We were counting on her. We wanted her to finish her studies. She was very smart and studious. She didn't even have a boyfriend.

'Her future has been ruined. Please help us find justice. Justice is what we need.'

Eden's father Perlito Villacete added: 'If anyone has any information, please tell the police so the suspect can be caught. I hope the killer's conscience haunts him, and he suffers for what he did.'

Local officials and private citizens have pooled together a bounty of at least 500,000 PHP (9,058 USD) to find the culprit who is still at large.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice in the capital Manila has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to launch a probe into the brutal killing.