Pathologist to carry out 5th post-mortem on body of woman found in field

GREEK Cypriot attorney-general Costas Clerides announced on Monday that pathologist Chara Spiliopulou would be flying in from Greece to carry out the fifth postmortem on the body of Petruna Nikolova due to the conflicting results from the previous four autopsies, three of which indicated the woman was mauled to death by dogs and one [the first] that suggested she died from injuries caused by farming equipment.

The 46-year-old Bulgarian woman was found close to death in a field in Yeroskipou on February 22 and died on the way to hospital.

Greek Cypriot police had arrested two people, a 27-year-old man and his father, aged 54. They are the owners of nearby premises where a number of dogs, including at least five Rottweilers, were kept.

The 27-year-old had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, and his father on suspicion of acting as an accessory after the fact.

The father has since been released without being charged after his remand expired.

Ms Nikolova arrived in South Cyprus a few days before her death with her partner Ivan Ivanov and was staying in Yeroskipou. She was out searching for work when she was found seriously injured in a potato field and died on her way to the hospital before being able to tell anyone what had happened.

The first autopsy, carried out by state pathologists Angeliki Papetta and Nicolas Charalambous, cited the cause of death as being hemorrhagic shock resulting from multiple injuries, possibly caused by farming equipment.

In the meantime, suspicions were raised due to the presence in the area of several rottweilers, prompting a second autopsy by Dr Charalambous in the presence of a vet. That one found Ms Nikolova’s death was “likely caused by dogs”.

Two more autopsies were carried out since, one on behalf of the victim’s family and one by a pathologist hired by two suspects arrested by police. Both found that her death was caused by dog bites.

In what has become a major embarrassment for South Cyprus, on Monday the attorney-general ordered a fifth post-mortem to be carried out by a foreign pathologist, to be certain there would not be any doubts after the first one gave a different cause of death.

Meanwhile police are continuing to search for two dogs suspected of attacking Ms Nikolova, in whose cage blood identified through DNA testing as belonging to her was found. The dogs are believed to have been killed and buried after the attack.

Detectives are also searching for a hunting shotgun, belonging to the 54-year-old, that was reported missing, the suspicion being that the firearm may have been used to put the dogs to death.

The South’s health ministry conceded on Wednesday that there were shortcomings in the island’s forensic medicine mainly due to the dated administrative structure of the civil service. In a statement following the debacle into the investigation of the death of Ms Nikolova, the ministry expressed regret and apologised to the family over the fact that five postmortems were needed to clear up the matter.