Three women have been remanded for eight days over the suspected murder of a 30-year-old Nigerian woman, Victory Osarumen Thompson, who was allegedly beaten to death with a broomstick in their Germasogeia flat.
The three suspects, who shared the Potamos Germasogeia apartment with the victim, appeared in court on Monday. A couple who visited the flat is also implicated in the case, having allegedly assaulted the victim before leaving with her mobile phone.
Details presented during the remand hearing paint a disturbing picture. An investigator told the court the victim was beaten with ferocity, whilst the broken broomstick found at the scene provides evidence of violence.
The killing took place on Sunday morning between 5am and 10am. According to written statements from the three women, a 35-year-old suspect and flatmate was the one who attacked Thompson with the broomstick.
The victim appears to have suffered a beating in one room before being moved by the suspects to another area, where she died without help.
As Phileleftheros reported on Monday, residents of neighbouring flats told police they heard shouting from the apartment, where four women were living, in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Suspects’ accounts
The three female suspects gave similar accounts to Limassol CID investigators about the events leading to the 30-year-old’s death. They said they had all been living in the flat for the past week and work as prostitutes.
According to their statements, they left the flat around midnight, leaving the victim alone. They returned around 5am from a Limassol club, accompanied by another couple they were friendly with. They found the victim in a frenzied state and assumed she had taken drugs, attempting to calm her down. During the attempt to restrain her, they used force.
The first suspect, aged 24, said she had a close relationship with the victim, as they had lived together in Nicosia, where the victim used various drugs. In recent days they had moved to Limassol and were staying in the Germasogeia flat.
She claimed she tried to calm Thompson down, but the victim bit her and reacted. She said she hit her with her hands, whilst the second suspect, aged 35, hit her with a broomstick. The couple was also present and tried to calm her down, also using force on the victim.
The 24-year-old claimed that when the victim lost consciousness, she assumed she had fallen asleep and then cleaned the blood from the area. When she realised the 30-year-old was not responding, she called an ambulance, which arrived at the scene with police.
In a written statement, the 35-year-old (second suspect) said that from midnight on Saturday into Sunday, she saw the victim taking drugs and then left the residence with the first and third suspects, going to a nightclub. Returning to the flat, the victim was out of control and did not realise what she was doing.
When she went to her room, the victim approached and attacked her, biting her leg. The first suspect intervened and tried to restrain the 30-year-old, whilst she claimed she took a broomstick and began hitting the victim, even after it broke. The couple also went to the room and used force on the victim to calm her down.
The 30-year-old lost consciousness whilst the couple left the flat. The 35-year-old claimed she then went to sleep, and later the first suspect woke her and told her the victim was unconscious.
In an investigative statement, the third suspect (the second 24-year-old) described the same events, saying she had gone with the suspects and another person to a club in Limassol, and at around 5am, after returning to their flat, she was drunk and went to sleep.
At some point, she woke up and saw the second suspect (35 years old) hitting the victim with a rod, whilst the first suspect was slapping her.
She asked them to stop and tried to tie the victim’s hands with a wire she found in the place, as the victim was reacting and in a frenzied state.
She also claimed the victim tried to bite her after freeing herself from the wire, and then she returned to the living room, where she fell asleep again.
Two more sought
Limassol CID investigators are still seeking two more people allegedly involved in the incident. Once their details are confirmed, arrest warrants will be issued.
The case remains open, with investigators having already obtained much evidence, including the broken broomstick, which has been sent for forensic examination.
Video footage from CCTV will be obtained and court orders will be issued for disclosure of the suspects’ telecommunications data and private conversations.
A post-mortem examination conducted by forensic pathologists Angeliki Papetta and Orthodoxos Orthodoxou found that the 30-year-old’s death resulted from head trauma combined with multiple body injuries caused by a blunt instrument, most likely the broken broomstick found at the crime scene.
Laboratory test results are awaited, which will shed more light on the case.
