Police Commissioner Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho (third from right), with other members of the Fiji Police Force Canine Unit. Photo: Charles Chambers 
 
 Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho says they have some leads in the murder of Russian couple Yuri Shipulin and his wife, Natalia. 
 
 Speaking at Natadola Beach yesterday afternoon, Brigadier-General Qiliho said he could not divulge any further information. 
 
 He said this was to assist in the investigations and when the case was presented in court. 
 
 The investigation in the waters at Natadola will be boosted today with the inclusion of the divers from the Fiji Naval Squadron. 
 
 Commander John Fox confirmed 10 Fiji Navy divers had been assigned to help the Police divers comb the seabed in the bay. 
 
 “I can safely say that to do a methodical search of that area, Natadola Bay will take two weeks. 
 
 “The body as it decomposes will rise, but it depends on what weighs it down,” Commander Fox said. 
 
 Meanwhile, Brigadier-General Qiliho said Police were also working on other areas involving the case but would not divulge any information on that. 
 
 He said the Police had interpreters who were assisting when the need arose. 
 
 When asked whether detectives or interrogators would be brought in to assist the Police, he said the need was not there at present. 
 
 The couple were reported missing from June 16 by their business partner Andrew Luzanenk. 
 
 According to a Police source, the couple were spotted a little later at Denarau Island having some drinks. 
 
 Later that same afternoon, the couple’s vehicle, a grey metallic Toyota Land Cruiser, bearing the registration �?PILOT’, was seen driving in to Natadola Beach. 
 
 The following day, Police located the vehicle parked under trees at the beach. 
 
 Its doors were unlocked with the keys still in the ignition and upon inspection, Police found woman’s clothing, believed to be that of Natalia and one she was wearing the previous day and a passport.. 
 
 Edited by Nemani Delaibatiki 
 
 Feedback: charles.chambers@fijisun.com.fj ||||| A couple on holiday in Fiji stumbled into a murder case gripping the Pacific island nation when their stroll on an idyllic beach led to the discovery of a human head. 
 
 It was the latest in a series of gruesome finds that began two weeks ago, when dismembered feet – wrapped and weighed down with rocks - washed up at Natadola beach, a popular tourist destination in the former British colony. 
 
 Police have since found numerous other body parts – typically wrapped in cloth or netting and weighed down – which had all washed onto the beach. 
 
 The latest find was made by Graeme Bickley, a New Zealand businessman who was enjoying a morning beachside stroll with his wife Jan when he spotted a submerged green bundle tied with nylon rope. 
 
 "We said, just jokingly, that it was more body parts," he told AFP. 
 
 "Then when I waded in to grab it, it became apparent how heavy it was, it almost pulled me over.” 
 
 Mr Bickley said he “wasn’t game” to look inside the bundle but turned it over to police, who later confirmed its grim contents. 
 
 “Someone has very callously cut them up, then spent a lot of time weighting them down with rocks and neatly knotting them up,” Mr Bickley said. 
 
 "They obviously didn't expect it to come back to shore." 
 
 The head appears to be linked to the murder of Yuri and Natalia Shipulin, an expatriate Russian couple who went missing on June 16. 
 
 The couple moved to Fiji in 2011 and ran a photography business from their vegetable farm in the Fijian highlands. Police believe a chainsaw was missing from the farm. 
 
 Authorities in Fiji have conducted DNA tests on the body parts and confirmed they belonged to the Russian couple. 
 
 “"We're still waiting for the Interpol [test] but we have tested it on our own," Assistant Commissioner Luke Navela told ABC News. 
 
 “Our investigators are walking the same area to get as much information as possible to lead us to [solve] this case." 
 
 No motive has yet emerged for the murders. 
 
 Their land rover was found near the beach, apparently with the keys in the ignition and the couple’s phones and other belongings untouched. 
 
 Some reports have suggested the couple were staying at a resort about 30 miles from the beach and were last seen having a drink there. 
 
 The couple’s disappearance was initially reported to police by Andrew Luzanenko, a business partner who said the farm had been struggling since Cyclone Winston earlier this year. 
 
 "Yuri was very depressed," he told The Fiji Times shortly after the couple disappeared. 
 
 "His business is not doing very well especially after the cyclone and then we tried to revive the farm but it has been a very slow process." 
 
 Alla Mallerich, a friend of the couple, described the pair as "soul mates". 
 
 "Yuri was a happy, easy going man who loved life, loved Fiji and he had plans to build his life in Fiji," she said. 
 
 Interestingly, Russia has been expanding diplomatic ties with Fiji in recent years as it tries to expand it influence in the Pacific. 
 
 Earlier this year, Russia made a secretive donation of 20-containers of arms to the Fijian military – a move that raised concerns that Moscow was seeking to build an armed presence in the area.Fijian authorities said the arms were for use by the country’s peacekeeping forces, who frequently serve in United Nations missions. 
 
 No connection between Russia’s growing Fijian ties and the unusual murder has emerged. ||||| Image copyright UNICEF/Getty Image caption The missing couple were reportedly in financial trouble after their farm was badly hit in a cyclone 
 
 A New Zealand couple on holiday in Fiji have found a human head on a beach, the latest grisly discovery in an unsolved murder case in the Pacific nation. 
 
 In recent weeks a number of parcels containing body parts have washed up in Fiji, beginning with two pairs of human feet. 
 
 Police believe the body parts belong to a Russian couple missing from their farm on Fiji's main island since June. 
 
 Police and naval personnel are carrying out a full search of the area. 
 
 Police told local media that DNA tests confirmed the feet belonged to the couple, but have yet to receive results for the latest find. They have said they will not comment further on the case until the murder investigation is complete. 
 
 New Zealand couple Graeme and Jan Bickley had gone to Fiji for a week when Graeme spotted a bundle in shallow water during a walk on a beach. 
 
 "I scrambled in and grabbed hold, it was very, very heavy," Mr Bickley told Associated Press. "I dropped it on the sand and you could hear there were rocks in it. I looked at the shape of it, and thought: 'This isn't looking good'." 
 
 The missing Russian couple, named as Yuri Shipulin and Nataliya Gerasimova, were reported by the Fiji Sun to have been in financial difficulties after their farm on the island of Vita Levu was badly damaged by a cyclone in February. ||||| Severed head and two pairs of feet found at popular Natadola beach after expatriate businessman and his wife disappeared 
 
 Fiji in shock as body parts of missing Russian couple wash up on famed beach 
 
 Natadola beach in Fiji is often referred to as the world’s most beautiful stretch of sand. That was until body parts started washing up on the shore. 
 
 Last month two pairs of human feet were found at the popular tourist spot. Then this week a New Zealand couple made another grisly find: a human head, wrapped in green cloth and weighed down by rocks, bobbing in shallow waters a few metres from shore. 
 
 Secret Russian arms donation to Fiji raises concerns of bid for Pacific influence Read more 
 
 Police have confirmed that the body parts belonged to a missing Russian couple, Yuriy Shipulin and Nataliya Gerasimova – retirees who moved to Fiji in 2011 and lived on a vegetable farm in the Nausori Highlands. 
 
 
 
 Friends described Shipulin as a former pilot for the Russian air force, who had a number of failed business interests on the island and was owed upwards of US$200,000 by former business associates. 
 
 “It was his first time off the block in paradise and he was living lavishly and burning the candle at both ends,” said Maxim, a friend of the couple who has lived in Fiji for a decade. 
 
 “Yuriy would give you the shirt off his back, he was too trusting and he was taken to the cleaners by unscrupulous people. He found out the hard way. He wanted paradise so bad, he couldn’t see it was rotten.” 
 
 The couple were reported missing on 16 June by Andrew Luzanenko, who has been described both as Shipulin’s business partner and a farmhand. There is no suggestion that Luzanenko was at all involved in their deaths. 
 
 The expatriate community organised searches in the dense forests surrounding the couple’s isolated farm but found no clue to their disappearance. 
 
 “It was a hot, sweaty, dusty, and tiring day,” wrote Alla SeaStar on Facebook on 21 June. 
 
 “I know everyone wants to hear about the result of our search. No luck. Or maybe it is luck that we did not find Yura and Natahsa. It means we continue to hope and believe in miracles.” 
 
 A few days after the search, the couple’s car – with the distinctive licence plate PILOT – was found at Natadola beach, unlocked with the keys still in the ignition. 
 
 Then came the body parts. 
 
 Natadola beach is popular with tourists and locals alike, and has two major resorts situated on its shores – the Intercontinental and the Yatule. 
 
 “We have asked the police a number of times why the beach remains open,” said Repeka Nasiko, a reporter for the Fijian Times. 
 
 “Because body parts keep turning up, and always on the beach. 
 
 “It’s a shocking killing, we are not used to something like this here,” she said. “It is so public and a very popular picnic spot. People are scared that whoever did this is still on the loose.” 
 
 Shafia Hassan, a businesswoman who employed Shipulin as a casual photographer, said the couple lived a happy life and were well liked and respected on the island. Hassan described Shipulin as “gentle and helpful” and Gerasimova as a “soft, kind lady”. 
 
 “I saw them in the week before they disappeared and they were fine and happy, in business mode,” she said. 
 
 “This case is a huge mystery for us. It is all we can talk about because there are still pieces of the bodies to be found. Whoever did this is mad.” 
 
 Murder cases are rare in Fiji, where tourism makes up 30% of GDP, and this case is so brutal that police released a statement on Wednesday asking locals to refrain from discussing it publicly, so as not to taint the nation’s reputation as a holiday paradise. 
 
 “I want to urge members of the public not to speculate or spread unsubstantiated rumours about the case as it only serves to create unnecessary fear,” the statement read. 
 
 “Speculation as such can paint a negative image of what’s happening in Fiji.” 
 
 A friend of the couple who asked to remain anonymous said the murders had shocked the close-knit expat community in Fiji. 
 
 “Nobody saw this coming,” the friend said. 
 
 “To have the bodies so damaged like that, what person with a good mind would do that? Before they disappeared everything was fine, like normal. It’s a sunny island, a perfect island, there was no need to be worried about anything in paradise. Until now.” 
 

– New Zealanders Graeme and Jan Bickley were on vacation in Fiji, strolling on the popular Natadola Beach when Graeme noticed a package wrapped in green cloth not far from shore, reports the BBC. "I scrambled in and grabbed hold, it was very, very heavy," he says. "I dropped it on the sand and you could hear there were rocks in it. I looked at the shape of it, and thought: 'This isn't looking good.'" The human head inside is just the latest body part to wash ashore in recent weeks. DNA tests confirmed two pairs of human feet found on the same beach—also wrapped and weighed down with rocks—came from a Russian couple, reported missing from their vegetable farm on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu on June 16, reports the Telegraph. A vehicle belonging to Yuri Shipulin and Nataliya Gerasimova—who moved to Fiji in 2011, per the Guardian—was found at Natadola Beach shortly after their disappearance with the keys in the ignition. Police believe a chainsaw was also missing from their farm. A friend says Shipulin, a former pilot in the Russian air force, was owed up to $200,000 from several failed businesses on the island; a cyclone that damaged the couple's farm in February apparently pushed them deeper into financial turmoil. "Yuri would give you the shirt off his back, he was too trusting and he was taken to the cleaners by unscrupulous people," the friend says. "It was his first time off the block in paradise and he was living lavishly and burning the candle at both ends." Divers have begun a search of the beach, which could take weeks, per the Fiji Sun. (A woman says she found a human face in a carwash.)