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.
