A Cypriot army officer who has allegedly confessed to killing seven foreign women and girls in three years appeared in court today as police say they have recovered a fifth body.
Captain Nicos Metaxas, 35, 'the island's first serial killer' has not yet been formally charged over the murders of five women and two of their daughters.
But police have today retrieved a suitcase containing the remains of a human body at a lake southwest of Nicosia, the second such find in a week.
Nicos Metaxas, 35, dubbed 'the first serial killer of Cyprus', appeared in court today after confessing killing five women and two girls
His court appearance came as police reportedly found a suitcase containing the remains of a human body, believed to be that of a child
Police spokesperson Andreas Angelides said a post mortem would be carried out on the body which is in an 'advanced state of decomposition'.
The body found today is believed to be that of a child, according to local newspaper Phileleftheros.
Metaxas has allegedly confessed to the murder of five women, alongside daughters of two of the women - a six-year-old Filipina and a Romanian girl.
The killings came to light in mid-April when unusually heavy rains brought the body of 38-year-old Filipina Mary Rose Tiburcio to the surface of a disused mine shaft where it had been hidden.
Mary Rose Tiburcio, 38 (left) was discovered on April 14 at a mine-shaft, while her six-year-old daughter Sierra is also feared dead
Cypriot media say the soldier is also suspected of killing Romanian mother Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, (left) and her eight-year-old daughter Elena Natalia (right) who went missing in 2016
The discovery triggered a murder investigation which led to Metaxas being arrested on April 18.
Days later, authorities found the body of a second woman in the shaft, believed to be Arian Palanas Lozano, 28, also from the Philippines.
These are the only two women to be officially identified.
The suspect then guided investigators to a well near an army firing range outside the capital, where police
