NICOSIA, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Cypriot search teams have retrieved the body of a six-year-old girl who was the last missing victim of a serial killer, police reported on Wednesday.
"The body of Siera was found at a depth of 10 meters at a point the suspect had earlier shown to the searchers," police spokesman Andreas Angelides told reporters.
Siera was the daughter of Mary Rose Tiburcio, a 39-year-old woman from the Philippines. Both had been reported missing since May 5, 2018.
The killer had wrapped the body of the girl in a piece of cloth and dumped it into another quarry lake a short distance away.
The body of the mother was accidentally found in the shaft of a mine in April, after flood waters pushed it to the surface, starting an investigation which brought to light the worst ever crime reported in Cyprus.
Hours before the finding of the body by divers, the chief of the fire brigade in charge of the search said authorities would start on Thursday to empty the lake, which contains more than two million cubic meters of water.
The search for the body started seven weeks ago after the self-confessed serial killer, army captain Nicos Metaxas, aged 35, admitted that he had killed seven women, including the daughters of two of his adult victims.
The killer had dumped two bodies in the mine shaft and four in a nearby toxic red lake with a high content of sulfuric acid, after putting them in travel baggage loaded down with road slabs.
The bodies in the suitcases were found by using sonar and robotic cameras.
The killer said he strangled all his victims, and that he killed at least one of them during love making at his house.
The suspect serial killer is currently in custody pending completion of police investigation.
After the finding of the body of the last missing victim, the suspect is expected to be charged on Friday with the crimes of murders, kidnapping, abduction, rape, indecent assault, attempting to destroy evidence and obstruction of justice, among others.
