Police recovered the remains of a fourth victim of a suspected serial killer in Cyprus where the search for bodies continued Monday after a string of grisly murders that have shocked the Mediterranean island.
The woman's remains were found Sunday stuffed in a suitcase at the bottom of a toxic man-made lake next to a disused mine southwest of the capital Nicosia, police said.
The suspect, a 35-year-old Greek Cypriot army officer, has allegedly confessed to killing five foreign women and two of their daughters in a crime spree that went undetected for nearly three years.
"After a long and persistent effort and a lot of difficulties, a travel suitcase was pulled from the lake, which contained a woman's body and also a cement block," senior police inspector Neophytos Shailos told reporters.
He said tests would be conducted to determine the woman's identity.
Police said they expected to bring a second suitcase to shore on Monday and will also search for a third travel bag believed to be in the lake.
British police experts - called in by Nicosia - were expected to join Cypriot authorities Monday to help solve the gruesome case dubbed Cyprus's "first serial killings".
Police are still searching for the body of a six-year-old Filipina girl, the daughter of one of the murdered women, according to local media.
They are also probing the cases of a missing Romanian mother and her young daughter as well as an unidentified Asian woman also on the list of the killer's suspected victims.
The case came to light two weeks ago when tourists spotted the first body, that of 38-year-old Mary Rose Tiburcio from the Philippines, brought to the surface of a disused mine shaft by unusually heavy rains.
That triggered a murder investigation which led to the army captain's arrest 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.
The suspect on Thursday showed investigators to a well near an army firing range outside the capital where police found the body of a third victim, an unidentified woman of Asian descent.