Photo: Instagram
An innocent photo turned ominous.
By Amy Lamare — Written on May 06, 2019
Some controversy has hit blogger and YouTuber Sarah Funk. She is a travel blogger and vlogger who normally shares her travel and tips with her audience in a sunny, cheerful manner. One of her latest dispatches, however, took a darker turn. Back in June 2017, she visited Mitsero Red Lake in Cyprus. The body of water is toxic, acidic and tinted red due to now-abandoned British mining operations. In a photo posted to Instagram, Funk stood in front of the lake with what looked to be a log floating behind her. Now, authorities believe that it was actually a suitcase that contained a body and is connected to a serial murderer who confessed to murdering seven people last week. He told authorities that he dumped some of the bodies of his victims in suitcases into the toxic lake that is a hot destination for travel influencers. Who is Sarah Funk?
1. The vlog of the incident
Sarah Funk and her partner Luis Yanes visited Cyprus in the summer of 2017. In the YouTube video they recorded of their visit to Mitsero Red Lake, Yanes can be heard saying: "This is what murder episodes are made of." They climbed over barbed wire to get to the lake. Funk said: "This feels like death, you know what I mean? I just feel death in the air, it's so nice." Some time during that visit to the lake, Funk took the photo that has now been called into question. Just a few days ago, authorities found the remains of a woman in a suitcase at the bottom of the same exact lake Funk took a photo at.
2. The serial killer
A fourth body was found last week in a suitcase in the man-made lake in the village of Mitsero, which is 20 miles west of Cyprus' capital Nicosia. Nicos Metaxas, a Greek-Cypriot army officer, has confessed to killing seven women and girls. All were of foreign descent. Police discovered the suitcases after the 35-year-old killer told them he put three victims into suitcases and threw them into the toxic lake. It's believed Metaxas is responsible for the worst crime against women in Cyprus in memory. He was arrested after the body of 38-year-old Marry Rose Tiburcio from the Philippines was found on April 14th in an abandoned mine shaft. He confessed to killing five women and two children over three years. His victims were domestic workers from India, Nepal, Romania and the Philippines.
3. Sarah's background
According to her website," "Sarah has always loved exploring since she was a little girl. After living in New York City and working for Disney doing North American marketing strategy for five years she decided that it was time to pursue her own dreams. Her goal is to share travel stories that inspire others to get out of their comfort zone and try something new. She is currently on a year-long trip around the world from Argentina to Indonesia filming, writing and creating content on her trip to share with others."
4. She removed the video
Once news of the serial killer's confession hit the media, Sarah was deluged with inquiries about the 2017 photo and video of her trip to Mitseros Red Lake. She removed the video and wrote a blog post saying: "I have removed the video from YouTube because I believe that we need to focus our attention on the victims of this tragic crime and not my video. This video has been used by the media to sensationalize this crime, and that is not okay. Let us instead remember those that were lost, and mourn for their families." She also wrote: "This is terrible and I am devastated for the victims' families. It felt eerie there but I did not see anything completely out of the norm ... I don’t have any other information about the lake. This is all of the information I have, and I hope it helps."
Amy Lamare is a Los Angeles based freelance writer covering entertainment, pop culture, beauty, fashion, fitness, technology, and the intersection of technology, business, and philanthropy. She is deeply devoted to her chocolate Labrador and an avid long-distance runner. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook.