Lawyer Says Suspect Confesses To Kidnapping-Murder Of Romanian Teens

The lawyer for a man detained by police in Romania as a suspect in a kidnapping and murder case says his client has admitted to killing two female teenagers.

Lawyer Bogdan Alexandru said on July 28 that Gheorghe Dinca admitted to burning the bodies of 15-year-old Alexandra Macesanu and 18-year-old Luiza Melencu in the southern Romanian city of Caracal.

Macesanu was abducted on July 25, while Melencu went missing in April.

Romania's national police chief, Ioan Buda, was fired on July 26 along with two regional police chiefs over allegations that officers were too slow to respond to Macesanu's telephone calls to a national emergency hotline saying she'd been abducted and raped by a man who picked her up while she was hitchhiking.

More than 2,500 demonstrators gathered outside the government building in Bucharest on the evening of July 27 and marched through central Bucharest calling for the resignations of more government officials over the case.

A vigil and rally, organized by women’s rights groups, also was held on the night of July 28 in memory of the victims.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Romanian Service, AP, and Reuters