A regional prosecutor says the death was caused by blows on the head and suffocation

SOFIA, Bulgaria – A television journalist has been brutally murdered in Bulgaria's northern town of Ruse, prosecutors said Sunday, October 7, with the case drawing international condemnation. The body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova, identified by authorities only by her initials, was found on Saturday, October 6, in a park, Ruse regional prosecutor Georgy Georgiev said. “Her mobile phone, car keys, glasses and part of her clothes were missing,” Georgiev said, adding that prosecutors were probing all leads - both personal and linked to Marinova’s job. Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said that there was no evidence to suggest a link to Marinova's work as a journalist so far - something echoed by police and prosecutors. Thanks to the large amount of DNA material collected it is just a matter of time before the perpetrator will be found.”

Police sources told AFP that the crime did not immediately appear linked to her work. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's media freedom representative Harlem Desir condemned Marinova's killing on Twitter: 'Shocked by horrific murder of investigative journalist Victoria Marinova in #Bulgaria. The European Commission, the European Union's executive said in a tweet today: 'There is no democracy without a free press ... We expect a swift and thorough investigation to bring those responsible to justice.' Victoria Marinova, 30, was the administrative director and presenter for private regional channel TVN and had been working on a project related to alleged high-level corruption with EU funds before she was brutally murdered and her body dumped in the city of Ruse, on the banks of the Danube River that form the border with Romania. “There is no information to indicate that the crime was committed by more than one person.”

In her final report, Marinova had interviewed Romainian journalist Atila Biro from investigative news website Rise Project and Bulgarian journalist Dimitar Stoyanov from investigative news site Bivol. Press freedom groups have expressed their shock over the rape and brutal murder of a Bulgarian TV journalist whose last aired report had been about the arrest of two investigative reporters. Among the most high-profile recent cases were Malta’s anti-corruption blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia who died in a car bombing outside her home in October 2017, and top Slovak reporter Jan Kuciak who was shot dead with his fiancee at their home in February.
Police announce that investigative journalist Viktoria Marinova was found murdered yesterday in a park in Ruse, Bulgaria. Marinova's latest work was on "GPgate", a scandal involving alleged corruption and abuse of European Union subsidies in Bulgaria.