Coroner confirms murder-suicide theory

AN AUTOPSY yesterday on the Egyptian man found dead after apparently stabbing his estranged wife, confirmed that he turned the knife on himself after killing her.

State coroner Sophoclis Sophocleous told the Cyprus Mailthat there was little to indicate any third person was involved in the killings: “He (Yasser Shukri Moussad) showed no signs of trying to defend himself from an attack.”

Sophocleous confirmed that Moussad and Eleni Antoniou, both 34, had died from kitchen knife stab wounds to their hearts and lungs.

Antoniou had also shown signs of trying to defend herself.

Both were found dead by Antoniou’s parents on Saturday morning after their daughter’s concerned colleagues at the American embassy, where she worked as a security guard, phoned them when she failed to report for work.

They found the front door of their Strovolos apartment locked and with a safety chain which prevented them from opening it with their spare key. Antoniou’s parents eventually broke the door down.

Antoniou’s father and friends of the couple have said the two had been having marital problems for some time. They had been separated for three months and Antoniou’s father said that Moussad had threatened his daughter in the past.

Antoniou had two children aged 12 and 13 from a previous marriage who live with their father.

Police confirmed yesterday that they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.

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.