NZ couple find human head on Fiji beach

  • 05/07/2016
The Russians had reportedly been living in Fiji since 2011
The Russians had reportedly been living in Fiji since 2011

A New Zealand couple have found a human head washed up at a beach while on holiday in Fiji.

The remains are thought to belong to either Yuri or Natalia Shipulin, a Russian couple who went missing last month.

Reports say the New Zealanders had been swimming when they came across the head wrapped in green netting.

Fiji police believe the couple were murdered and dismembered. Other body parts washed up last week.

"We said, just jokingly, that it was more body parts," Kiwi businessman Graeme Bickley told AFP.

"Then when I waded in to grab it, it became apparent how heavy it was. It almost pulled me over.

"It was weighed down with rocks. You could hear them clinking when I dumped it on the beach and we started to get a feeling there was more to it than what it appeared."

The Russians had reportedly been living in Fiji since 2011.

The Fiji Times says a chainsaw was missing from a farm the couple were leasing on the island of Viti Levu. The farm had reportedly been devastated by Cyclone Winston this year, putting the couple in financial difficulties.

"We were discussing amongst ourselves what sort of person has done this," says Mr Bickley.

"Someone has very callously cut them up, then spent a lot of time weighing them down with rocks and neatly knotting them up.

"They obviously didn't expect it to come back to shore."

Navy divers are still searching for more body parts off Natadola Beach.

Newshub.