Autopsy of victim due to be held as red lake search continues

UK-based Cypriot state pathologist Andreas Marnerides will reportedly be back in Cyprus on Monday for the autopsy on the fifth body retrieved in the ongoing search for the victims of serial killer Nicos Metaxas.

The body, the second pulled out of the red lake in Mitsero is believed to be that of Elena Natalia, aged 8, the daughter of 35-year-old Romanian Livia Florentina Bunea, who was also murdered.

Of the seven murders of female foreign nationals – five women and two children aged 6 and 8 – that 35-year-old Metaxas confessed to the police to have murdered, five bodies have so far been found, with police still searching for six-year-old Sierra Graze Seucalliuc and one more body, probably that of Marricar Valdez Arguiola, 30.

Arguiola is believed to be located in a third suitcase dumped in the red lake in Mitsero. Two of the suitcases containing victims Metaxas had dumped in the red lake were retrieved by the authorities, the first on April 28 and the second on May 5.

The search of the red lake continued for the 29th day on Sunday although nothing was found as divers continued to struggle against the mud at the bottom of the lake.

The search for six-year-old Sierra, the daughter of the first woman found, Filipino Mary Rose Tiburcio, was is ongoing in the Memi Lake in nearby Xyliatos.

A sonar that has been used to map the bottom of both lakes will be leaving the island on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the remand order against Metaxas expires on Monday and he is expected to be taken back to court where police will request another one.