Μake us preferred on Google Three months after a double killing in Aigio, new forensic findings are raising further questions about the case and the role of a 65-year-old Italian man who remains in pretrial detention.
Authorities have not yet established who killed the 26-year-old man and his 54-year-old mother. One possibility under investigation is that the mother killed her son and then took her own life. Another is that a third person was responsible.
The two victims were found dead in early June, and forensic reports have now provided further details about their injuries.
Mother suffered 34 stab wounds
The forensic report on 54-year-old Maria records 34 stab wounds, as well as multiple abrasions and bruises. A powerful sedative drug was also detected in her blood.
According to the report, she suffered a chest injury that ruptured her heart and caused blood to accumulate around it following multiple knife wounds. The report states that all of the injuries were inflicted while she was alive.
The wounds included 11 to the chest, 15 to the abdomen, seven to the left arm and one to the neck.
However, the report does not specify which wounds may have been fatal, their dimensions or whether any could be considered hesitation wounds. It therefore does not provide a clear conclusion about whether the woman died by suicide or was killed.
Forensic pathologist Dimitris Galenteris said the report simply records the injuries and cause of death without distinguishing which wounds could be attributed to different actions.
“If the prosecutor has not asked for clarification, I estimate that it will be requested,” Galenteris said.
He also said the number and location of the wounds make the suicide scenario difficult to explain, noting that numerous stab wounds to the chest are more commonly associated with homicide than suicide.
Questions over the circumstances of Maria’s death
The location of some of the wounds has also raised questions about whether Maria could have inflicted them herself.
Criminologist Demetra Tsitsi said wounds to the wrist can occur in suicides, but argued that a person attempting to kill themselves would typically make a direct attempt to inflict a fatal injury.
She also questioned why a shotgun that was present at the scene was not used.
“A person who wants to commit suicide uses a weapon. They would not go through a process of repeatedly hurting themselves and then try to die,” Tsitsi said.
Son was stabbed and then shot
The forensic report for Maria’s 26-year-old son, Olympios, is more conclusive about the cause of death. It describes the death as a homicide.
According to the report, Olympios was first stabbed multiple times while alive and was then shot in the right temple with a hunting firearm.
The report describes severe chest injuries caused by multiple knife wounds and identifies the gunshot wound to the right temporal region as the fatal injury.
The central question for investigators is therefore who killed Olympios: his 65-year-old stepfather, who remains in pretrial detention, or his mother.
Tsitsi said she did not believe the evidence pointed to a scenario in which Maria killed her son and then committed suicide. “I see a third person in all of this,” she said.
Stepfather maintains he heard nothing
The 65-year-old Italian man has maintained that he was sleeping in the adjacent room and did not hear anything on the night of the killings.
Tsitsi questioned that account, saying the two rooms were separated by a door and arguing that it would be impossible not to hear a gunshot. She also said that each stab wound would normally be accompanied by a scream.
The man, however, continues to say that he did not realize anything was wrong that night. He says he discovered the two victims dead the following morning.
According to his account, Olympios was found with four stab wounds and a gunshot wound to the head, while Maria was found behind the door in a pool of blood.
