The body of a woman hidden inside a suitcase has been retrieved from a toxic, man-made lake by police investigating a suspected serial killer in Cyprus.
Police say the suspect – a Greek Cypriot army officer – has confessed to killing seven female victims during a three-year spree.
Local media names the alleged murderer as Nikos Metaxas, 35, and cites police sources as claiming he could be linked to 23 more cases of missing women, many from the Filipino community.
Police say the suspect, who is being held on suspicion of murder, has confessed to killing five women and the six- and eight-year-old daughters of two of his victims. He contacted the women using online dating sites.
Four bodies have been found so far, and the body recovered on Sunday was in an advanced state of decomposition after being retrieved from the lake close to an abandoned mine west of the capital Nicosia.
“After great and persistent effort and many difficulties a travel case was pulled from the lake, containing the body of a woman, and a block of cement,” said Neofytos Shailos, head of Nicosia Criminal Investigation Department.
It appeared to belong to an adult, Shailos told journalists.
Tourists stumbled upon the first victim, discovered by chance in a disused mining shaft, two weeks ago.
A mother and daughter from Romania are thought to have disappeared in September 2016, and the last of his victims, from the Philippines, around August 2018.
The bodies of three women have been discovered in recent days. One has been identified as Marry Rose Tiburcio, 39, reported missing in May 2018. The bodies of the other two victims are thought to belong to a woman from the Philippines and a woman from Nepal, who went missing last year.
Police have been accused of failing to investigate the disappearances properly when they were reported.
Tiburcio, the first victim discovered, was found on April 14. Her six-year-old daughter Sierra is missing. Almost a week later a second victim was found in the same mine shaft, and on April 25 a third at a firing range some 15 km away.