DNA Places C Romania Armed Robbery Suspect Gribenco At Crime Scene -Sources

While investigators in Brasov made no public statements, people close to the investigation said there are clues placing Gribenco at the scene of the robbery and double homicide. Investigators base their hypothesis on eyewitness testimonies, DNA tests and similarities between the armed robbery and information on the suspect’s previous robbery routine.

Early March, sources close to the investigation cited by Pro TV said Gribenco had been recognized by witnesses as one of the robbers. The sources said Gribenco was pointed by several witnesses as one of the authors of the armed robbery of a currency exchange office on January 29 in Brasov, which left two people dead and one injured.

Investigators have a tapped phone conversation in which Moldovan citizen Gribenco was asking his girlfriend to get rid of incriminating evidence and the charger of a gun that matches the one fired in the robbery.

Gribenco was caught late February in the southern Romanian city of Ploiesti. He had been wanted since 2005 as he was fleeing a sentence of four and a half years imprisonment for theft and deceit.

The first suspect in the case was Moldovan citizen Serghei Gorbunov, who had left a Romanian maximum security prison in May 2008 and hadn’t returned to serve a 15-year prison term for armed robbery.