Soldier ‘murders’ two women he met on a dating site in the ‘first serial killings’ on Cyprus as police search a lake for victim’s missing six-year-old daughter
- A 35-year-old soldier has been arrested for murders of two women in Cyprus
- The hunt for one of the victim’s daughter continues just outside capital Nicosia
- The army officer has been placed in custody on suspicion of murdering all three
A Cypriot soldier has been arrested for the murders of two women he met on a dating site as the search for one of the victim’s six-year-old daughter continues.
Cyprus police chiefs today confirmed that the island was faced with an ‘unprecedented’ crime after the bodies of both women, believed to be from the Philippines, were discovered inside a flooded mine earlier this month.
Police divers are also searching for a missing six-year-old girl, who is the daughter of one of the victim’s, in a lake outside the capital Nicosia.
Following the discovery of the women, a 35-year-old Cypriot army officer was placed in custody on suspicion of murdering all three victims, in what local media have dubbed Cyprus’s ‘first serial killings’.
Police teams stand next to a lake at the Xyliatos dam in Cyprus as the search for a missing six-year-old girl continues. Last week the bodies of two women were discovered inside a flooded mine in what local media have dubbed Cyprus’s ‘first serial killings’
Rescuers carry out investigations at a mine where two women were found dead this month. Police confirmed that a 35-year-old Cypriot army officer has now been placed in custody on suspicion of murdering all three victims
Police rescue teams use a boat to search for the missing daughter of one of the victim’s near Xyliatos
Police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou told reporters: ‘The police and Cypriot society are faced with a type of crime unprecedented for Cyprus.’
The first woman, who was found on April 14, has been identified as 38-year-old Mary Rose Tiburcio from the Philippines.
Ms Tiburcio and her daughter, the child being sought by police, were reported missing to police in May 2018.
A second woman, who was also reported missing in 2018, was found during the search of Mitsero mine outside Nicosia, her decomposed body bound and wrapped the same way as the first victim.
Investigators have said the suspect had confessed to her killing and reportedly named her as a 28-year-old from the Philippines.
Cyprus police later told a court that the soldier had admitted to strangling one of the victim’s after having sex with her.
A rescue officer uses a camera attached to a boat to search the lake for the missing girl. Local media have since dubbed the murders as Cyprus’s ‘first serial killings’
Search teams continue their search at the Mitsero mine and Xyliatos lake following the discovery of two women
Following the discovery of the two women, Cypriot authorities have faced increasing pressure for their failure to take action when the mother and daughter first went missing.
The main opposition party AKEL called on the police chief and justice minister to resign over a case that has shocked society in Cyprus with its relatively low crime rates.
AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou said: ‘Unprecedented indifference was shown simply because these people were not of Cypriot origin but came from foreign countries.’
The case came to light after a German tourist taking photographs of the mine spotted the first body, brought to the surface of the 500 foot (150-metre) shaft which flooded after unusually heavy rains.
The suspect reportedly met the two women, both domestic workers, through Badoo, a dating-focused social network.
The mining area where Cyprus search teams are continuing their search for a missing six-year-old girl whose mother was found dead in a water-filled shaft with the body of another woman
Police tape is put up in the area around the mine where the bodies of two women were discovered