Nikos Metaxas
Nikos Metaxas (Greek: Νίκος Μεταξάς; born in 1984) is a Greek Cypriot former army officer and convicted serial killer. He confessed to the Mitsero murders, in which five women and two girls were killed.[1] He has been charged by the Supreme Court of Cyprus with seven life sentences.[2]
Victims
Metaxas confessed to the murders of five women and two children, all foreigners. All of the adults were migrant workers. At least four bodies have been dumped in lakes, and two were found in an abandoned mine. 36-year-old Romanian woman Livia Florentina Bunea and her eight-year-old daughter Elena, both killed in September 2016, are thought to have been the first victims. Two decomposed bodies, which the police believe to be those of Bunea and her daughter, were found stuffed into suitcases and dumped in a lake. A third suitcase which is believed to contain the body of Maricar Valtez Arquiola, a 31-year-old Filipino woman who disappeared in December 2017, has yet to be found. Filipina Mary Rose Tiburcio, a 38-year-old Filipino migrant worker, was the last woman killed but the first body found; her body was discovered in an abandoned mine on 14 April 2019 by a German tourist.
Three bodies have been found naked, bound, and wrapped in sheets. The police believe them to be the bodies of two Filipino migrant workers and possibly that of a Nepalese woman, whose body was found at an army shooting range by investigators. The body of six-year-old Filipino girl Sierra Graze Seucalliuc was found in a lake on 12 June 2019. She went missing with her mother, Mary Rose Seucalliuc, in May 2018.[1][3]
Aftermath
Cypriot authorities are facing accusations of not fully investigating the reports when the women were first reported missing.[4]
References
- Smith, Helena (1 May 2019). "Man suspected of Cyprus serial killings 'has confessed in writing'". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- "Cyprus serial killer handed seven life sentences". BBC. 24 June 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- Smith, Helena (12 May 2019). "'It's hard to take in': how Cyprus serial killings left country reeling". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
- "Seventh victim of Cyprus serial killer found". BBC. 12 June 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.