Sunday, June 8, 2025 - The body of a missing woman has been discovered beheaded and stuffed inside a suitcase near an abandoned farmhouse in the Tuscan town of Montecatini Terme, about 25 miles west of Florence, Italy.
Maria Denisa Paun, 30, a Romanian national, had been missing
since May 15 after vanishing from her home in Prato, Tuscany. Her grisly
remains were found nearly three weeks later.
Authorities say a local security guard, Vasile Frumuzache,
32 — also a Romanian national — confessed to the murder. He allegedly admitted
to strangling Paun, beheading her with a knife, and setting her head on fire
using gasoline before concealing her body in a garbage bag and suitcase.
Frumuzache told investigators he had met Paun, who worked as an escort, through a dating app. According to reports, after they met at a hotel, she threatened to reveal their encounter to his wife unless he paid her the equivalent of around $11,450.
“She was
blackmailing me, that’s why I killed her,” he reportedly told police. “When I
told her that I was married, she said she could reach my wife.”
Surveillance footage from the hotel shows Frumuzache
arriving around 10:50 p.m. on May 15 with a black bag. Just after 1 a.m., he is
seen leaving with a white suitcase belonging to Paun, which he loaded into his
Volkswagen Golf. Paun’s body was later found inside that same suitcase
Investigators used GPS data from a device installed in
Frumuzache’s car by his insurance provider to track his movements. That data
led them to the secluded farmhouse where Paun’s body was recovered.
The murder has shocked residents of Tuscany and gained
national attention amid speculation that Paun may have been abducted by
organised criminals. The discovery of her remains has now brought the mystery
to a tragic close.
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