Murder hunt after missing GC found battered to death
A MURDER investigation has been launched after a missing Greek Cypriot was found battered to death close to the Girne-Değirmenlik mountain road.
Detectives are combing woodland near Arapköy for clues after the body of 65-year-old Solomos Apostolides was discovered on Thursday evening, eight days after he had driven into the TRNC.
Attention has also turned to Turkey, in the hunt for a man caught on CCTV with Mr Apostolides leaving a casino and on Girne’s Kordonboyu seafront last Wednesday, hours after the Greek Cypriot had arrived in the TRNC and the last time he was seen alive. The 22-year-old Turkish national, identified by police only by the initials “ES”, but named in the Greek Cypriot media, is believed to have flown out of North Cyprus that night. Turkish police have been notified. Mr Apostolides’s body was formally identified by his son yesterday
morning, and a post-mortem examination revealed he had suffered a fractured skull and brain haemorrhage as a result of “blunt force”. His clothes had been partly burned.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay expressed his condolences to the family and said they and Greek Cypriot authorities were being kept fully informed. He said the evidence so far indicated the death was a criminal matter, not a “political” one.
President Mustafa Akıncı and Turkish Cypriot head of the Bicommunal Technical Committee on Crime and Criminal Matters Hakkı Önen were both said to be monitoring developments closely. Prime Minister Tufan Erhürman told reporters at his press conference yesterday that he had spoken personally to the police chief, and the force had “strong evidence” about the identity of the killer and lack of a “political” motive.
He declined to share further information from the “confidential” investigation, but said: “It’s not a question of the [perpetrator] not being known.”
Widowed father-of-two Mr Apostolides, a retired army NCO, was said by his brother, Kypros, to have been a daily visitor to TRNC casinos with “ES”.
He last crossed the border through the Bostancı checkpoint at about 11.30am last Wednesday and his family raised the alarm when he failed to return.
His locked car was found in Kocatepe Sokak, Alsancak last Saturday, with his ID card, passport and money inside.
Police focused their search for him on Girne initially, based on security camera evidence, but on Thursday broadened investigations to Karakum and Çatalköy, where abandoned buildings were searched.
A walker stumbled across his body among trees about 400 metres from the Kendin Pişir Kendin Ye barbecue restaurant at about 6.30pm on Thursday.