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World NewsWoman found beheaded, stuffed in suitcase in murder that has rocked a beloved tourist hotspotBy Anthony BlairPublishedJune 5, 2025, 6:10 p.m. ET

The body of a missing woman was found beheaded and stuffed in a suitcase in a famous Italian tourist region — three weeks after she disappeared, authorities said.

Maria Denisa Paun, 30, a Romanian national, disappeared from her home in the town of Prato, in Tuscany, on May 15.

Her remains were found Wednesday near an abandoned farmhouse in Montecatini Terme, about 25 miles west of Florence, Italian media report.

A local security guard has admitted murdering Denisa, cutting off her head with a knife, then setting fire to it with gasoline, Corriere Fiorentino reports.

Paun, who worked as an escort, reportedly threatened to tell the man’s wife if he didn’t pay her.

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Vasile Frumuzache, 32, who is also a Romanian national, faces charges of murder and suppression of a corpse, according to prosecutors.

The married father of two told police he met Paun on a dating app before visiting her at a hotel the same night she was murdered, according to prosecutors.

They had sex, but then she threatened to go to his wife unless he paid her the equivalent of around $11,450, he told police, according to Italian media reports.

wearing blue, claimed she was blackmailing him by threatening to go to his wife. Jam Press5Paun was last seen alive on May 15 at a hotel in the Tuscan town of Prato. Jam Press

“She was blackmailing me, that’s why I killed her,” Frumuzache was quoted as saying. “When I told her that I was a security guard and that I was married, she told me that she was able to

reach my wife.”

He then strangled Paun, dismembered her corpse, stuffed it in a garbage bag and put the remains in a suitcase, driving from the hotel to the secluded farmhouse, Corriere Fiorentino

reports.

Hotel security footage shows Frumuzache arrive outside at 10:50 p.m. May 15 with a black bag.

Just over two hours later at around 1 a.m., he is shown on camera leaving the hotel with a white suitcase belonging to Paun, which he loads into his Volkswagen Golf, according to reports in

Italy.

Paun’s remains were inside that suitcase, according to prosecutors.

Investigators used a GPS installed in Frumuzache’s car by his insurance company to trace his movements after Paun’s disappearance, and tracked him to the abandoned farmhouse on Wednesday

morning, when they found Paun’s headless body, along with the white suitcase.

Paun’s case fascinated Italy in recent weeks, following rumors she might have been abducted by criminal gangs after leaving Rome and traveling to Tuscany last month.

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