Rio cop reportedly confesses to love triangle killing of Greek ambassador to Brazil

A Rio de Janeiro police officer has admitted killing Greece's ambassador to Brazil possibly at the behest of the diplomat’s Brazilian wife with whom he was having an affair, Reuters reported Friday, citing a Brazilian TV station.

Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was last seen Monday night, the police said in a statement. A burned body the police believe is the diplomat's was found inside his torched car in Rio.

Police and Rio state security officials declined to comment on the Globo report and their investigation.

Rio de Janeiro police investigator Giniton Lages told The Associated Press that blood spots believed to be those of the ambassador were found on a sofa inside the home of the wife.

Another investigator said the ambassador and his wife fought three days before Christmas.

According to the Greek Embassy website in Brazil, Amiridis started his career as diplomat in 1985 in Athens and became Greece's top diplomat in Brazil in 2016.

He earlier was Greece's ambassador to Libya and worked as consul in Rio from 2001 and 2004.

Brazilian news website G1 reported that Amiridis' wife has an apartment in Nova Iguacu.

The Greek foreign ministry said the embassy in Brasilia was informed Wednesday by people close to the ambassador that they had been unable to communicate with him since Monday.

Francoise, his Brazilian wife and the mother of their 10-year-old daughter, reported him missing Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Globo TV reports that officer Sergio Moreira, 29, confessed to killing the ambassador on Monday night in the Rio de Janeiro home the diplomat owned in Nova Iguaçu, a hardscrabble neighborhood in Rio's sprawling and violent northern outskirts, according to Reuters.

Globo TV reported that investigators said they believed Françoise and Moreira had arranged the murder in advance.

Both Amiridis' wife and the officer were in custody, but it was not clear if they had retained lawyers, Reuters reported.