Remains Found in Suitcase in Cypriot Serial Killer Probe
from the bottom of a man-made lake Sunday, the chief of Cyprus' Criminal Investigation Department said.
The body is believed to be that of one of the victims of a Cypriot
military officer who has confessed to killing seven foreign women and
girls.
Senior Inspector Neophytos Shailos said a coroner who examined the body
at the scene said it was in an advanced stage of decomposition. He said a
battery of tests and scientific examinations will be conducted to
determine the woman's identity.
Authorities focused their search on the lake some 32 kilometers (20
miles) west of the capital, Nicosia, after the suspect — a 35-year-old
army captain — told investigators that he put the bodies of three of his
victims into suitcases and threw them into the toxic lake, part of a
now-defunct copper pyrite mine.
Those victims are believed to be Maricar Valtez Arquiola, 31, from the
Philippines; Florentina Bunea, 36, from Romania; and Bunea's 8-year-old
daughter, Elena Natalia. Arquiola has been missing since December 2017,
while the mother and daughter vanished in September 2016.
Shailos said a coroner who carried out a preliminary examination at the scene determined that the body is of an adult female.
The retrieved suitcase is one of two that were located in the lake
Saturday. Shailos said authorities won't retrieve the second one
immediately, but will continue scouring the lake for the third suitcase.
The development is the latest in a rapidly unfolding case that has
shocked Cypriots who fear a serial killer has been preying on foreign
women who came to work in the east Mediterranean island nation.
The case came to light with the April 14 discovery of the bound body of
38 year-old Filipina Mary Rose Tiburcio down a flooded shaft near the
lake.
The discovery triggered a homicide investigation that led to the
captain's arrest before a second woman's body — thought to be that of
28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, also from the Philippines — was found
in the mineshaft on April 20. Police said the suspect admitted killing
them both and they believe that he also killed Tiburcio's 6 year-old
daughter, Sierra, who remains missing.
The scope of the case expanded when the suspect confessed Thursday to killing a total of five women and two of their daughters.
The suspect, who has not been named because he has not been charged yet,
also led investigators to a military firing range where the decomposed
remains of a woman were discovered down a pit. Officials said the
remains could be those of Ashita Khadka Bista, from Nepal.
Police initially tracked down the suspect through Tiburcio's computer
messages on a dating site. Investigators said the two had had a
six-month relationship before Tiburcio and her daughter disappeared in
May 2018.
A court heard that Tiburcio's roommate had pleaded with her not to take
along her daughter to a pre-arranged rendezvous with the suspect on the
night of her disappearance. But Tiburcio said the suspect insisted that
she bring her daughter along so that the child could play with his two
small children.
He faces charges including premeditated murder and kidnapping for alleged crimes dating back to Sept. 30, 2016.
Police Chief Zacharias Chrysostomou has ordered an internal probe to determine whether investigators had failed to properly investigate the women's disappearance, amid public criticism that authorities did little to search for the women when they were reported missing.
VOA
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