By Athena Karsera
THE STABBING to death of a mother of two who worked as a guard at the American embassy and the apparent subsequent suicide of her second husband stunned a quiet Nicosia street yesterday.
The parents of 34-year-old Eleni Antoniou, worried after she failed to turn up for work, broke into her Strovolos apartment – and found their daughter and her former husband, Egyptian Yasser Shukri Moussad, 34, dead. Each had been stabbed several times with a large kitchen knife.
Nicosia CID head Nathaniel Papageorgiou said at the scene that initial investigations showed Antoniou had been stabbed by Shukri, who then took his own life. Police say they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.
When they had arrived at the fourth-floor apartment at around 10am, Antoniou’s parents found her door locked. They tried to open it with their spare key but were prevented from doing so by the safety chain on the inside.
After smashing their way into the flat they were then confronted by the sight of their dead former son-in-law lying in a pool of blood in the hallway.
Further inside the flat the couple were horrified to discover their daughter had been murdered in her bed.
They had gone to the building after concerned colleagues at the American embassy where Antoniou worked as a security guard phoned them when she failed to turn up for duty.
Police quickly arrived at the scene and cordoned off the building while the residents of Evropi Street stood around in small groups discussing what had happened. The street is opposite a National Guard camp near the Presidential Palace.
Neighbours told police that they had seen Shukri arrive at Antoniou’s flat at around 7pm on Friday. But another witness said he was seen entering the building earlier at around 3pm, carrying a bunch of yellow roses.
Police sources said that a note sent with the roses read: “I love you. I want you. I don’t want to lose you.”
On Friday Antoniou had celebrated her name day, the day devoted to the saint after whom she was named.
Friends of the couple said that they had been separated for the past three months and had “a lot of problems”. Her father claimed last night Shukri had threatened to kill his daughter in the past.
One neighbour told The Sunday Mail that Antoniou’s two children, aged 12 and 13, live with their Cypriot father, her first husband.
The only witness to the crime was Antoniou’s Pekinese dog ‘Lucky’ which is currently being taken care of by friend of the dead couple.
One neighbour said that when they had lived together they had been quiet and usually kept to themselves, and that Shukri often took the dog for long walks.
State coroner Sophoclis Sophocleous told reporters that both Antoniou and Shukri had died from multiple stab wounds to the chest. “The fatal blow, in both cases, was to the heart,” he said.
Sophocleous said that the couple had been dead for at least 12 hours before they were found. Neighbours reported hearing the sounds of an argument in the early hours yesterday at around 1.30am.
The state coroner also said that marks on both bodies indicated that there had been a struggle and that Antoniou in particular showed signs of having tried to defend herself.
The bodies were removed from the flat just before 1.30pm. A post mortem will be carried out tomorrow, Sophocleous said.
