Cyprus’ first serial killer

On July 14, 2019, a German tourist discovered the badly decomposed body of a woman in an abandoned mine shaft not far from the village of Mitsero. The body had been washed out of the mine shaft and onto the surface by heavy rainfall. The body turned out to be that of 38-year-old Mary Rose Tiburcio from the Philippines, who had been reported missing since May 2018 along with her 6-year-old daughter Sierra. Just four days later, Nikos Metaxas, a 35-year-old married father of two, was arrested. He had been communicating with the victim until her death under the nickname Orestes via the online dating platform Badoo. Nikos was considered a model husband who enjoyed photography in his spare time and was regarded as an ambitious military officer in the Cypriot National Guard. No one would have thought that he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a cold-blooded serial killer who murdered five defenseless women and two girls within three years. During questioning about the murder of Mary Rose Tiburcio, Nikos broke down and confessed to seven murders, including the murder of Mary Rose’s daughter Sierra, whose body he had disposed of in Lake Memi, not far from Xyliatos. Since Nikos had disposed of three women’s bodies in the toxic acid lake, Kokini Limni, also known as the Red Lake due to its reddish color, in the village of Mistero on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, the gruesome series of murders was named the “Mitsero murders.” In order to recover the bodies from the lake in the middle of a copper mine, divers had to wear special equipment due to its contamination with chemicals and high acidity. In addition to Mary Rose Tiburcio, the body of Maricar Valdez, a Filipino woman who had been missing since December 2017, and 8-year-old Elena were also found in the lake. She was the daughter of 36-year-old Romanian Livia Florentina Bunea, Nikos’ first murder victim, whom he had killed in September 2016. Nikos always proceeded according to the following modus operandi. After abusing the women and children, he used the inside of his elbow to squeeze their throats, causing them to suffocate to death. He then either packed the bodies into suitcases or wrapped them in a carpet. He disposed of them in the toxic Red Sea in Mitsero, at the shooting range near Orounta, and in Lake Memi. During the investigation, a woman claimed that she had been raped by Nikos. After the series of murders of foreign women from the Philippines, Romania, and a woman from Naples came to light, the authorities came under criticism. Despite the fact that they had been reported missing by their colleagues and relatives, no further investigation was conducted, as it was assumed that the so-called migrant workers had returned to their home countries, even though they had left their passports behind and had not withdrawn any money from their accounts. In addition to accusations of racism, there was also massive criticism of the sloppy police work. As a result, not only did police chief Zacharias Chrysostornouand have to step down, but Minister of Justice Ionas Nikolaou also resigned. Nikos Metaxas was sentenced to seven life sentences by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2019.