Second Bulgarian suspect arrested in connection with Rosca murder

A second Bulgarian man has been arrested in connection with the murder of Daniela Rosca, 36, a Moldovan national, and is due at the Larnaca court for a remand hearing on Sunday.

Plamen Pelov, 32, for whom Cyprus police issued a European arrest warrant, contacted police from Bulgaria and said he would surrender, according to CNA. He arrived in Cyprus on Saturday night around 8.30pm and was picked up by police at the airport.

Rosca was found dead in her Larnaca apartment last November. Pelov had left Cyprus two days later.
Another suspect, Daniel Yordanov Slavchev, a 31-year-old Bulgarian is currently in police custody in connection with the murder.

Larnaca police last Thursday located the two mobile phones and an i-Pad belonging Rosca, which had been buried at a spot in the Koshi area, led there by Slavchev.

At the same spot, police found a shirt, a glove and two passports. In a nearby spot, they uncovered the clothes worn on the day by Slavchev and Pelov.

Following his recent arrest, Slavchev told detectives that he and Pelov were acting on the instructions of Panayiotis Alexandrou, 26, from Aradippou, Larnaca.

Alexandrou allegedly orchestrated the murder of Rosca, whom he believed to have been involved in the theft of €25,000 from his parents’ house after he had ended their romantic affair. He is also currently in police custody.

Slavchev and Pelov were to break into Rosca’s apartment and force her to hand over the money.

Entering the flat, Slavchev claimed, he saw Pelov, clad in a hood and gloves, holding a woman from behind, whose face he couldn’t make out.

He then saw Pelov move the woman to another bedroom, push her to the floor and repeatedly kick her on the neck and back.

Then, using a shoelace he found in another room, which Slavchev claimed to have also touched, Pelov tied the woman’s hands behind her back, and pushed a pillow against her face to keep her from screaming.

According to Slavchev, the two then took her two mobile phones and her i-Pad before fleeing the scene.

During Slavchev’s remand renewal hearing on Thursday, the lead police investigator told the court that cheek swabs taken from the suspect matched DNA material found on the shoelace used to tie the victim’s hands.