Stalking suspect murders woman; arrest warrant turned down due to poor health

A man in his 60s murdered his former girlfriend on Thursday, months after the prosecution turned down suggestions to have him arrested for stalking.

The victim, a woman in her 70s, was reported to the police as missing at around 6:40 a.m. on Thursday. Police tracked her mobile phone and found the victim's body inside the home of the suspect, who was unconscious.

It was found that the victim reported the suspect multiple times for stalking. She reported him in June for waiting outside her workplace, and police placed a restraining order against him.

The suspect was again reported for stalking in July, and the officials placed him under emergency arrest. Police asked the prosecution to request a warrant for his official arrest, but it was turned down.

According to the local broadcaster MBN, the prosecutors cited the suspect's poor health and his pledge not to harass the victim again as reasons for not requesting the arrest warrant. Officials said the suspect had stage 4 cancer and was not expected to live for much longer.

The suspect was under a provisional order to wear an electronic anklet to track his movement, but committed the crime two weeks after the tracking device came off.

The victim was reportedly a subject of A-level watch for relationship-type crime, which refers to someone who is at high risk of becoming the victim of stalking, domestic violence or dating violence. Some 21,000 victims are under such protection by police; officers check in with them at least once a month to verify their safety.

Police said that they had notified the victim that the suspect's tracking device was about to come off last month.