A POLISH couple have been arrested in Dudley in connection with the murder of a woman in Holland more than ten years ago.

Officers arrested 39-year-old Darius Majchrzak and 35-year-old Samea Kubiak on suspicion of murder after a ‘disclosure’ was made when they were called to a domestic dispute at their Occupation Street home on Monday May 14.

West Midlands Police detectives travelled to Holland, where they undertook a joint investigation with the Dutch authorities, who have re-opened the case into the disappearance of pretty Paulina Olga Starczewska in 2000.

International missing persons’ websites state Paulina, who was reported missing by her mother two years later, was 21 years old and pregnant.

Following the tip-off from Kubiak, an excavation of a campsite in Landsmeer, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, was carried out and the remains of a woman were found.

Dutch news websites report the grim discovery was Paulina’s body, although no formal identification has yet taken place.

On Saturday, the couple, who have three children together and are expecting their fourth in one month’s time, were both further arrested for extradition under the Extradition Act 2003 and appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday.

During the hearing the court heard Majchrzak is believed to have strangled Paulina during a drink and drugfuelled party before burying her underneath a caravan on the site.

The couple are thought to have lived on the campsite, just yards away from the body, for a further five months before moving to France later that year and then settling in the UK six years ago.

Hannah Hinton, for the Dutch authorities, told the court: “Mr Majchrzak killed the victim by strangling her.

“After, he dug a hole under a tent at the front of the caravan and then buried the body in the hole.”

Kubiak also claimed jobless Majchrzak, who is living off benefits, also tried to sexually assault both women, before he killed the victim.

Following the hearing, Majchrzak was remanded in custody until June 12,while eight months pregnant Kubiak was remanded until June 2.

Officers in Holland are now leading the investigation, supported by detectives from West Midlands Police.

Detective Inspector Derek Packham, from West Midlands Police Force CID, said: “This has been an unusual and complex inquiry.

“Over the last seven days we have been working closely with Interpol, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, as well as our police counterparts in Holland, to progress the investigation as efficiently as possible.

If the remains are indeed conirmed as those of Paulina Starczewska, it will bring closure to a ten year missing person inquiry and hopefully some comfort to a family which has spent the last decade looking for answers.

“From here forward we will be supporting police in Holland, who have taken the lead in what is now confirmed as a murder inquiry.”