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Seven victims, one identified

Seven victims, one identified

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Members of the Cyprus Special Disaster Response Unit search for suitcases in a man-made lake, near the village of Mitsero outside of the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. Cyprus police spokesman Andreas Angelides says British experts called in to assist in the east Mediterranean island nation's serial killer case have been brought up to speed on the ongoing probe. Photo: AP

Nicosia: Only one victim, 38-year-old Mary Rose Tiburcio from the Philippines, has been positively identified in the case so far. Her bound body was discovered on April 14 down an abandoned mineshaft. A second body, who police believe is 28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, also from the Philippines, was found in the mineshaft six days later. Authorities are separately searching a reservoir for the body of Tiburcio’s six-year-old daughter Sierra. On Sunday, divers pulled a suitcase containing the badly decomposed body of a woman out of a toxic lake that is part of a disused copper mine. Crews are searching for two more suitcases there. The victims in the lake are believed to be Maricar Valtez Arquiola, 31, from the Philippines; Florentina Bunea, 36, from Romania; and Bunea’s 8-year-old daughter, Elena Natalia. Arquiola has been missing since December 2017 while the Romanian mother and daughter vanished in September 2016. — AP