Police probe murder reports over missing French woman

POLICE are investigating “various reports” concerning the disappearance of a French visitor not seen since she failed to catch her flight home on January 1.

But police spokesman Glafcos Xenos said yesterday he could not confirm widespread media reports that an informer had told police that 49-year-old Jacqueline Françoise Chomic had been murdered by a local taxi driver.

“We are investigating various reports but we cannot comment further while investigations are ongoing,” Xenos said.

Chomic, from St.Vallier, arrived on the island for a holiday on Christmas Day last year. Police have said she has not contacted her mother in France or her travel agent’s office since missing her return flight over four weeks ago.

Xenos said Cyprus police were liaising with their French counterparts and with Interpol in their search for Chomic.

A French embassy spokeswoman told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) the embassy “would like to know whether her disappearance is related to information reported in the press about a foreign woman being murdered.” She said the embassy did not believe Chomic had left Cyprus.

Police have appealed for anyone knowing anything that might help with investigations to come forward. Chomic is described as 1.70m tall, slim, with red hair and blue-green eyes.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.