Two suspects arrested in connection with the discovery of two charred bodies in a car in Limassol were remanded in custody for eight days on Friday.

The pair, aged 23 and 19 years old respectively, had been arrested on Thursday night. One of their victims was named as 39-year-old Andreas Kouzoupis, while the identity of the other has not yet been determined.

Both victims were found charred inside a vehicle while both had sustained gunshot wounds to the head.

Police believe the murder was connected to the buying and selling of a loudspeaker.

A police representative told the Limassol district court on Friday that Kouzoupis had reportedly arranged to sell the loudspeaker to the 19-year-old suspect for €800, but that the suspect then changed his mind and received threats.

Kouzoupis’ father said his son had left their home in a village in the Limassol district and said that someone would come to buy the loudspeaker for €800. He said his son had then returned to the house and taken the loudspeaker himself, leaving it in another person’s vehicle.

The vehicle was the same vehicle in which the two charred bodies were found. The vehicle’s owner is a 39-year-old Slovakian national who lives in Nicosia. He was last seen on July 30 and is believed to be the second victim.

Searches of the burned wreckage of the vehicle found a loudspeaker and a spear gun, while, following interrogations, police determined that the 19-year-old had in fact been interested in buying a loudspeaker, and he had asked the 23-year-old “for help” when he began receiving threats.

The police representative told the court that the two suspects gave conflicting accounts of the circumstances in which the crime was committed. Additionally, he said, the claims they made contradict the evidence uncovered and other testimonies secured by the police.

The representative said the 19-year-old claimed the 23-year-old had asked him for his father’s shotgun to “intimidate” Kouzoupis and that during a meeting arranged between the pair and Kouzoupis, he left the scene before receiving a phone call from the 23-year-old saying the matter had been “settled” and that he “would not be bothered” by Kouzoupis again.

However, the 23-year-old claims it was the 19-year-old who pulled the trigger on the gun and then pushed the vehicle onto the dirt road on which it was found. The 23-year-old also reportedly claims that the 19-year-old returned to the scene the next day, doused the car in petrol, and set it on fire.

The police representative said both claims contradict video evidence taken from a local petrol station, which show both suspects arriving at a petrol station before filling a water bottle and an oil container with petrol shortly before the vehicle was found on fire.

On Friday afternoon, Limassol police director Andreas Angelides confirmed that the police are “methodically continuing investigations”.

He said the police’s investigation is now focused on determining the identify of the second victim, taking statements from various people, and examining the wider area.

“Additional examinations will focus on the motive on the criminal act and the investigation of all matters arising from the case,” he said.

Earlier, police spokesman Christos Andreou had said both suspects and both victims were living in the village of Arakapas

He added that authorities had found several shotguns at the home of the 19-year-old, one of which is believed to be the murder weapon.

An autopsy had confirmed that the victims had died from craniocerebral injury caused by a shotgun.

Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis and police chief Stelios Papatheodorou had been briefed over developments at the city’s central police station.

The police’s investigation into the matter is ongoing.