A criminal case that has features of Hitchcock’s Psycho was revealed in Nea Smyrni, suburb of south Athens on Thursday. A 38-year-old man was found to have stabbed his 64-year-old mother to death. When police raided the apartment, they found the body of the woman on a armchair. The son confessed he had killed his mother three days earlier.
Neighbors had called the police after an unpleasant, penetrating odor was coming from the apartment on the third floor of the middle class residential apartment building.
The son did not respond to police knocking at the door which was locked. Officers called a locksmith.
When police entered the apartment, the son reportedly said, “OK, I killed her three days ago” and sank on a armchair opposite to the one with his mother’s body.
The woman had multiple injuries in the head, neck and upper parts of her body, caused by a knife. Her son had stabbed her more than 30 times.
The son was found to have been suffering from severe mental health issues. He told police, he killed her because she was putting pills in his food in order to control his mind, media reported. In a delirium confession he claimed that his mother was “doing weird things” that were causing him strong headaches. After the murder the headaches were gone, he claimed.
Speaking to media, neighbors said they had heard a voice calling for ‘help’ but could not locate where the voice was coming from and did not inform the police.
Neighbors speak of the family of “a quiet, polite woman and a son who was hardly leaving the apartment or had any social relations. The parents went divorced, the family had one more son who has been working abroad.
The man was arrested, is expected to be taken into a mental health facility.
It is the third family tragedy in Athens within just four days. A case revealed also on Thursday had more or less the same features: a woman had killed her father and stayed with the body in the family home for two days.
In the neighboring suburb of Kallithea, a 56-year-old woman killed her 88-year-old father with his walking stick. The woman called the police on Thursday noon claiming he died of natural causes. But it was revealed that she had killed him two days earlier. She confessed the murder. The daughter was caretaker to her bed-ridden father, the two were arguing frequently. The man had multiple injuries on the head.
On May 7th, a 79-year-old man called the police saying he had killed his 72-year-old wife with a chopper. He told police he had an argument with his wife, he “took a chopper from the kitchen and killed her.” Police found the body of the woman with multiple injuries on the head and other parts of here body. The family tragedy happened in Thrakomadedones suburb of north-west Athens.
