Iranian police said Thursday they had arrested a man suspected of killing at least 16 prostitutes in the holy city of Mashhad in a series of murders dubbed the "spider killings," reported the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.
"This man is married, 39 years old with three children," IRNA quoted national police chief Gholamreza Ghalibaf as saying.
Qalibaf said that despite recent press speculation that the “spider” was unmarried, and that an organized network must be involved in the crimes, the arrested man was initiating the murders on his own.
Qalibaf also said that the suspect was considered responsible for sixteen out of nineteen similar murders the city had witnessed in the past year.
He did not explain who the murderer of the remaining three women might be, nor how so much precise information about the string of killings had been acquired within such a short period after the arrest of the accused party, IRNA added.
Qalibaf also said that a team of expert police officers were dispatched to Mashhad to help Khorassan police with the issue early in the spring.
The Wednesday evening arrest was the result of two days of tough searching in the city, according to the top police officer.
The serial killer is currently being interrogated and the details of his arrest will be announced later, said a top local official.
A few suspects had already been caught and interrogated, but the ongoing murders after their arrests proved that the killer was still at large.
A lawmaker called Tuesday for the removal of security officials for "laxness" in the performance of duty and delay in solving the cases, the agency added – Albawaba.com
