Serial Killer's 7th Victim: Girl Wrapped in Bed Sheet

Discovery brings 2-month search in Cyprus to a close
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 13, 2019 11:48 AM CDT
Serial Killer's 7th Victim: Girl Wrapped in Bed Sheet
Police officials stand next to a tent where divers brought what is believed to be remains of a 6-year-old girl, near the village of Xiliatos, Cyprus, on Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Philippos Christou)

Authorities in Cyprus say they've found the bodies of all seven victims of the island nation's first known serial killer—including that of two young girls. Decomposing remains believed to be of Sierra Granze, 6, were found wrapped in a bed sheet and tied to a cement block at the bottom of Lake Memi near Xyliatos on Wednesday, reports the Independent. The BBC reports that Nikos Metaxas, a 35-year-old Greek Cypriot army captain, admitted to preying on five female foreign workers and two of their daughters over two years. Authorities say he pointed investigators to the lake, located near an abandoned copper mine where the bodies of Sierra's Filipino mother, 38-year-old Mary Rose Tiburcio, and another Filipino woman, 28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, were found in April.

Remains of Romania's Livia Florentina Bunea, 38, and her 8-year-old daughter, Elena, were found in suitcases at the bottom of a toxic lake at the same copper mine, while the body of Nepal's Ahita Khadka Bista was discovered in a dry well at a military firing range. Most of the adult victims were housekeepers who met Metaxas online before disappearing between September 2016 and August 2018, per Sky News. Tiburcio had dated the married Metaxas for six months before she and her daughter vanished in May 2018. Her body was spotted by a tourist almost a year later, prompting accusations of bungled police work that have since brought the sacking of Cyprus' police chief and resignation of the justice minister. Metaxas, in custody since late April though he has yet to be formally charged, will appear in court on Friday. (More Cyprus stories.)

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