Search parties continue for the 29th day their arduous task to locate the rest of the victims of a self-confessed serial killer.
At Kokkini Limni (Red Lake) divers are expected to continue their battle against the mud to find the third suitcase, where the alleged killer has admitted hiding the body of a woman.
If the suitcase is not located by Monday, two divers will work at the same time as the support company has now secured another two uniforms, suitable for this kind of a job.
The diver’s job is made more difficult because of the mud on the bed of the lake. During yesterday’s search visibility at the bottom of the lake was nil and divers were using their hands to search.
If the suitcase is not found today in the charted corridor, where the search is focusing now, experts will be called in again to mark new search points on the basis of the sonar scans.
According to available information, the sonar equipment will leave Cyprus on Tuesday ad it has scanned both lakes (Red Lake and Memi) and has nothing more to offer in the search.
So far five bodies have been recovered – of four women and one child. Two women were found in an abandoned mine shaft, one in a dry well at Orounta firing range and one at Kokkini Limni (Red Lake), at Mitsero. A second body of an eight year old girl was also pulled from the depths of Kokkini Limni.
Authorities have been combing the lake for days using divers, a robotic camera and state of the art sonar equipment in their search for murder victims.
On Monday, the self-confessed murderer will appear again before the court for a renewal of his remand order.
A Greek Cypriot army officer who has reportedly confessed to killing five women and two children, has told police he had put the bodies of three of his victims — a mother and daughter and another woman — in suitcases and thrown them in Kokkini Limni.
Divers have recovered the bodies of the mother and daughter but are still looking for the third victim. They are also still looking for the body of a six year old girl whom the suspect said he had thrown into a lake at Xyliatou.
The case has shocked public opinion and led to the resignation of the Justice Minister and the sacking of the police chief. An independent inquiry is underway as to how police handled the case of women and children reported missing and later found to be dead. Critics say that had police properly investigated the disappearances then lives could have been saved.
