Cypriot cops press search for victims of serial killer
Vigil held for three Filipinos as probe on location of fourth missing continues
NICOSIA— Cypriot police on Friday continued to search for more victims of a serial killing that included at least three Filipinos.
The police scoured a disused mine tailings pond west of Nicosia as shocked Cypriots accused the authorities of bungling investigations and failing to heed concerns about the safety of women.
Indignation vigil
Hundreds of people attended a vigil in Nicosia on Friday evening and prayed for the seven victims, all foreigners, whom a still unidentified National Guard captain admitted to killing.
Two of the victims, Mary Rose Tiburcio and Arian Palanas Lozano, both from the Philippines, were reported missing in May and August 2018.
The body of Tiburcio, 38, was found in an abandoned mine shaft on April 14, triggering an investigation that led to the arrest of the 35-year-old army officer, who later confessed the killing.
No charges yet
The suspect, who has been detained for a week, has not been identified because he has not been charged, but a court ordered him detained for eight more days.
Lozano, 28, was later found in the same mine shaft but Tiburcio’s six-year-old daughter remained missing and was also believed to have been killed by the suspect.
The police probe sickeningly expanded when the suspect told them on Thursday about four more victims, bringing the total to five women and two of their daughters.
The police recovered the body of the third victim, believed to be “either Indian or Nepali,” at an army firing range about 14 kilometers from the mine shaft.
The suspect said under questioning that he put the bodies of three more victims inside luggages that he ditched in the tailings pond that used to be part of a copper pyrite mire.
Search teams using robotic cameras found two suitcases at the bottom of the tailings pond and continued to search for the third suitcase, Fire Service Chief Marcos Trangolas told The Associated Press (AP).
Police are still searching for the body of Tiburcio’s daughter and that of 31-year-old Maricar Valtez Arquiola, also a Filipino, who has been missing since December 2017.
Probers are also looking for 36-year-old Livia Florentina Bunea, from Romania, and her 8-year-old daughter, Elena Natalia Bunea, who have been missing since September 2016.
A team of British detectives is due to arrive on the island on Monday to help with the investigation, police said.
Worst crime in memory
The gruesome killings, believed to be the worst peacetime crime committed against women in Cyprus in living memory, shocked Cypriots.
Friday’s vigil was organized on social media on Orthodox Good Friday, one of the holiest dates on the Christian calendar.
“We are here ... for our victims,” said Filipino expatriate Lissa Jataas, one of the 16,000 Filipinos in Cyprus.
“We ask for justice for all these girls that were brutally murdered. It is a very devastating time because we are all just here to work. Nobody deserves this,” she told Reuters.
The Cypriot opposition party, Progressive Party of Working People, called for the resignation of the justice minister and police chief over their handling of the case.
Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou and Police Chief Zacharias Chrysostomou have said there would be an investigation into any perceived shortcomings.
Nobody was interested
“These women came here to earn a living, to help their families. They lived away from their families. And the earth swallowed them, nobody was interested,” opposition lawmaker Irene Charalambides told Reuters.
“This killer will be judged by the court but the other big question is the criminal indifference shown by the others when the reports first surfaced. I believe, as does my party, that the justice minister and the police chief should resign. They are irrevocably exposed.”
One person who did attempt to alert the authorities over the disappearances, a 70-year-old Cypriot citizen, has said his motives were questioned by police.