A New Zealand businessman's Fijian holiday turned into a murder mystery when he uncovered a human head while strolling along a beach.
Graeme Bickley and his wife Jan were walking along Natadola Beach on Monday when they saw a "bundle" wrapped in green cloth submerged in knee-deep water, AFP reported.
The discovery appears to be linked to the murder of Russian couple Yuri and Natalia Shipulin, who went missing on June 16.
Mr Bickley said he first joked to his wife that the sack tied with a piece of nylon could be more body parts because a number had already washed up on the beach in the past two weeks.
He told AFP he then went into the water to grab it and almost fell over due to the weight of it.
"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 that what it appeared."
He didn't feel brave enough to open it, but said authorities later confirmed the suspicious package was a head.
Mr Bickley said authorities did not reveal any more information about the head, and he still found it hard to comprehend that he and his wife and may have become involved in the murder case.
Fiji police confirmed this week DNA tests showed the body parts belonged to the Russian couple.
The pair, who had reportedly been in Fiji since 2011, were believed to have been murdered and dismembered.
Fiji Sun reported the couple were last seen on Denarau Island having drinks, and police were yet to confirm reports that they were at a resort near Natadola Beach where their feet had washed up. The couple were leasing a farm in Kachiquari and ran a photography business from it.
Police said a chainsaw at the couple's farm had also gone missing and detectives were looking into this.
The couple's business partner, Andrew Luzanenko, who alerted police to their disappearance when he filed a missing person's report, told Fiji Sun the couple's fruit and vegetable farm had been hit hard by Cyclone Winston and they were going through tough times.
Divers from the Fijian navy were today resuming an underwater search off Natadola Beach.
