Police suspect break-in gone wrong after 20-year-old victim found bound and gagged
A 20-YEAR-old Russian woman was yesterday murdered in her Nicosia apartment, police said.
She was found fully clothed in her bedroom, bound and gagged with tape.
Her 31-year-old flatmate, also from Russia, was badly beaten and rushed to Nicosia General Hospital for treatment.
Investigators believe Kristina Polyntsova’s murder may have been a break-in gone wrong. Two assailants are said to be responsible for the crime, police said.
She is the sixth murder victim this year and the second woman.
At around 4.40am yesterday, police were called to the scene by tenants living in the apartment above the victim’s, after her 31-year-old friend banged on their door and told them what had happened.
CID officers were immediately dispatched to the Kennedy Avenue apartment block, where they found the dead woman on her bed.
State pathologist Nicholas Charalambous, who will today conduct the autopsy to determine Polyntsova’s exact cause of death, could not yesterday say whether she had been raped or beaten, although he said her bedroom showed signs of a struggle. He added that her 31-year-old flatmate had suffered a wound to the head and had various other cuts and bruises on her body.
“She [Polyntsova] was found with her hands, feet, mouth and nose bound with tape. We will know more tomorrow [today] when I’ve conducted the autopsy,” he said.
Reports said it was looking increasingly likely that the victim had died from asphyxia because of the tape, although Charalambous would not confirm this.
Polyntsova, who only turned 20 in February, and her friend arrived in Cyprus as visitors at the beginning of this month, police said.
Sources close to the investigation said that during that time, their apartment is thought to have operated as a massage parlour.
Asked to what extent the murder may have been linked to this situation, a police source told the Cyprus Mail: “We are investigating all avenues at this time. We do not know for certain yet, but there is a suspicion that this was a break-in and that they [assailants] didn’t know she was going to die.”
This lead ties in with earlier comments made to the Mail by an officer, who admitted that this was the first time someone had been murdered using this method, but that thieves had been known to tie up and gag their victims during break-ins.
To confirm their suspicion, police need the 31-year-old, who is in hospital under heavy police guard, to go back to the apartment to verify if anything was taken, the source added.
The flatmate is said to have told police that they were attacked by two hooded assailants. Neither man is said to have spoken, giving investigators no indication of their identity.
Investigators yesterday combed every inch of the apartment and surrounding area for clues. Evidence found on the flat’s balcony suggests the assailants used that as their entry and exit route.
Police chief Charalambos Koulentis told reporters it was still too early to tell how the investigation would unfold and that he had nothing of substance to announce.
He said: “This is a heinous crime which we are still at the beginning of investigating and have nothing in our hands which we can give direction to or say anything more… We have a girl who is dead and a second girl who is injured.”
Reports said a third Russian woman, possibly a close relative of the victim, was brought to Nicosia from Larnaca for questioning. No further information on this woman was available.
According to police statistics, 13 people were murdered in 2006, of which four were women. During the corresponding four-month period last year, four people were murdered, although none were women, police added.
