Cyprus' President Appoints New Police Chief as Searchers Find Another Victim

President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades appointed Kypros Michaelides as the new police chief of the country and Stylianos Papatheodorou as the new deputy chief of the police force, on Monday.
Michaelides has served as deputy chief under the leadership of Zacharias Chrysostomou.

O Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας αποφάσισε και διορίζει:

– στη θέση του Αρχηγού της Αστυνομίας τον κ. Κύπρο Μιχαηλίδη, μέχρι τώρα Υπαρχηγό της Αστυνομίας.

– στη θέση του Υπαρχηγού της Αστυνομίας, τον κ. Στυλιανό Παπαθεοδώρου, έως τώρα Βοηθό Αρχηγό Επιχειρήσεων.

— Προεδρία της ΚΔ (@CYpresidency) May 6, 2019

Chrysostomou was dismissed last Friday over the force’s perceived failures to properly investigate the cases of missing women who eventually turned out to be victims of a serial killer who was an officer in the country’s National Guard.
The 35-year-old army captain has allegedly confessed that he killed seven women since 2016, including two young girls. He also admitted dumping their bodies at various locations around Cyprus, including a toxic lake containing mine slurry and a reservoir in the areas of Mitsero and Xyliato, near the capital of Nicosia.
On Sunday afternoon, a suitcase was found at the bottom of the toxic lake in Mitsero, and a dead body was found inside the piece of luggage after it was brought to the surface. Investigators are assuming that it belonged to a child, most likely one of the two girls the officer admitted to murdering.
On Monday morning, a new phase of the intensive search conducted by the Cypriot authorities began, this time with a state-of-the-art sonar machine which divers took with them into the opaque, silty water.
It is hoped that the new equipment will be able to facilitate the recovery of more of the bodies of the officer’s victims in the extremely difficult environment of the lake, which is full of mine slurry.