NICOSIA, Cyprus: Search teams in Cyprus located two suitcases at the bottom of a lake where a detained military officer who allegedly confessed to killing seven foreign women and girls told investigators he dumped some of the bodies, officials said Saturday.
Officers spotted the possible evidence with a robotic camera that will be used to keep scouring the man-man lake for a third suitcase suspected to be under water, Fire Service Chief Marcos Trangolas said.
The suspect, a 35-year-old National Guard captain, said under questioning he put the bodies of three victims inside luggage that he ditched in the lake, a police official told The Associated Press.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose details of an ongoing investigation.
The lake, located some 32 kilometers (20 miles) west of Cyprus’ capital of Nicosia, is part of an abandoned copper pyrite mine where a woman’s body was found in a flooded shaft on April 14.
The discovery triggered a homicide investigation that led to the captain’s arrest before a second woWorldman’s body was found in the mineshaft on April 20. Police said the suspect admitted killing them both.
But police said the scope of case sickeningly expanded when the suspect told them Thursday about four more victims, bringing the total to five women and two of their daughters.
The suspect has not been named because he has not been charged yet. He faces charges including premeditated murder and kidnapping for alleged crimes dating back to September 30, 2016.
Police told a judge at a court hearing on Saturday the suspect gave details of the slayings in 10 handwritten pages. The judge ordered him held for eight more days.
The Cyprus News Agency reported that he is married with two children but separated from his wife. The news agency said investigators found photos of the mineshaft where the in his possession.
Shocked Cypriots are grappling with the mounting evidence from police that a serial killer was in their midst preying on women who came to work on the east Mediterranean island nation.
Hundreds of people turned up for a protest vigil outside the presidential palace Friday to mourn the victims and to question if authorities failed to adequately investigate when women who worked as housekeepers or in low-paying jobs were reported missing.
In a poignant moment, a group of tearful Filipino women held lighted candles and bowed their heads in prayer for the three women and one girl of Filipino descent who are believed to be among the dead.
The child is the 6-year-old daughter of the first woman found at the mine, Mary Rose Tiburcio, 38. Both had been missing since May of last year.
Investigators zeroed in on the captain as a suspect based on online chat communications between him and Tiburcio during a six-month relationship.
Cypriot media have identified the other victim from the mineshaft as 28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, also from the Philippines.
During the Thursday interrogation that produced four more potential victims, the suspect provided directions to a military firing range where police found decomposed remains in a pit within hours.
The captain thought the woman he killed and discarded in the pit was of Nepalese or Indian descent, according to police. At Saturday’s court hearing, an investigator said she might have been Ashita Khadka Bista, from Nepal.
Cypriot police think the other three victims they know about so far are a 31-year-old Filipino woman who has been missing since December 2017, Maricar Valtez Arquiola, and a Romanian mother and daughter.
Cypriot media identified the mother as Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, and her 8-year-old daughter as Elena Natalia Bunea. The two are believed to have been missing since September 2016.
Cyprus: Suitcases in lake match suspect’s claims of 7 deaths
Cyprus: Suitcases in lake match suspect’s claims of 7 deaths
- Cypriot media identified the mother as Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, and her 8-year-old daughter as Elena Natalia Bunea. The two are believed to have been missing since September 2016
Thai officials say 72 tigers at tourist parks died of canine distemper, allaying bird flu fears
- “There has not been an animal-to-human infection case,” Promphat said
- “If we detect any sick persons, we will prepare for a nationwide monitoring measure,” said Khanasawat
BANGKOK: The deaths of 72 tigers in two animal parks for tourists in northern Thailand shouldn’t be a major concern for the public, officials said Tuesday, because they were caused by a virus not known to affect humans, rather than bird flu.
No one has shown any symptoms so far, but authorities were nonetheless monitoring the health of people who had recently come into contact with the animals.
“There has not been an animal-to-human infection case,” Public Health Minister Pattana Promphat said at a news conference at Government House in Bangkok.
The tigers in the parks in Mae Taeng and Mae Rim districts in Chiang Mai province became sick and died during a roughly 10-day period between Feb. 8-18.
On Friday, the Chiang Mai regional livestock office announced in a statement that autopsies of the animals found genetic material of canine distemper virus, or CDV, and traces of bacterial infection, but no avian influenza type A virus, also known as bird flu.
“If we detect any sick persons, we will prepare for a nationwide monitoring measure,” said Monthien Khanasawat, director-general of the Public Health Ministry’s Disease Control Department. “This will include contact tracing and treatment as necessary.”
Monthien spoke at the news conference in an apparent effort to reassure the public that the tigers’ deaths didn’t come from bird flu, which has been resurgent in parts of Asia. Thailand saw 17 deaths among 25 infected patients from poultry-caused influenza from 2004 to 2007, according to the Public Health Ministry.
CDV, infectious for both dogs and felines, can cause stronger symptoms in cats and tigers and can be spread through bodily fluids and air. Thai authorities said that tigers in confined environments, and which are already affected by stress and inbreeding conditions, could be particularly vulnerable to the viral infection.
The remains of the tigers went through necropsies before being cremated and buried. The carcasses were properly disinfected, photographed and discarded to prevent any further use, Livestock Development Department Director-General Somchuan Rattanamangklanan said at the news conference.
But Visit Arsaithamkul, a veterinarian who took part in the tiger necropsies, expressed concern that the origins of the infections remained unclear without further investigation. In a Facebook post, he said that he suspected that as the two parks were located just 30 kilometers (18 miles) apart, the cause of infection could be food the tigers were fed that came from the same source.
He declined to elaborate when contacted by The Associated Press. Both parks, run under the name of Tiger Kingdom, remain closed. The operators didn’t immediately respond when asked for comment.
Thai authorities are still alert for the threat of a bird flu outbreak. Monthien, the Public Health Ministry director, urged Thais to be careful with their consumption of poultry after a man in a neighboring country that he didn’t name was found infected with bird flu.
The first animal-to-human transmission of bird flu was discovered in Hong Kong in 1997 before a pandemic started spreading in Asia in 2003. In Thailand, tens of millions of poultry were exterminated and consumption plunged in fear of getting infected.
