Crime not ruled out after dogs unearth human skull

Cyprus Police are keeping a tight lid on a preliminary investigation into remains found just outside Paphos, with local media hinting at some information that could help identify the body.

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Police spokesperson Christos Andreou told state radio on Tuesday morning that nothing has been ruled out following the discovery of human remains outside Yeroskipou, Paphos district.

Days earlier a local farmer notified authorities that his dogs had unearthed a human skull in a rural area between the villages of Koloni and Marathounta.

Further investigation revealed more human bones while additional reports said items possibly pertaining to a person’s identity were also found by police, but Andreou decline to comment on the identity of the person, saying investigators would wait for DNA tests before identifying the body.

But local media on Tuesday suggested the body might have belonged to a person aged between 40 and 50, with police unsure at the preliminary stage whether a crime had been committed against an individual or when it might have taken place.

The area, which is a suburb of Paphos, drew media attention when the body of 46-year-old Bulgarian woman Petruna Milchova Nikolova was spotted back in 2018, prompting police to suggest she had been mauled to death by dogs in the area while their owner was later acquitted.

Private forensic pathologist Marios Matsakis, who also testified for the defence, had pointed to specific wounds and argued there had been no scientific basis to state with absolute certainty that those injuries could have been caused solely by dog bites while precluding other scenarios such as farming equipment.

Another suburb in the area also drew attention when another skull was found on a beach in Chloraka also in 2018, prompting authorities to call on anthologists to examine the case.