Crete Police reveals appalling details about the murder of Suzanne Eaton

“Suzanne Eaton was raped and murdered,” the local branch of Greek Police on the island of Crete announced during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, short before the 27-year-old perpetrator with initials G.P. was taken to prosecutor.

The 27-year-old Greek man “has confessed to the murder of 60-year-old American biologist Suzanne Eaton,” Crete Police Director Kostas Lagoudakis. He added that the suspect, arrested on Monday, initially contradicted himself during questioning, then finally broke down and confessed. The autopsy report showed that the body had traces of sexual assault and that Eaton was victim of a “violent criminal act.”

Details revealed by police about the heinous crime are appalling.

Crete Police First officer Eleni Papathanasiou told reporters that the man, a local resident on the island, described to police the incidents on July 2, 2019.

He told police that he hit Eaton twice with his car, with the intent to disable her in order to sexually abuse her.

He said that when he saw Eaton jogging on the road to Kolymbari, he made an U-turn and hit her with this car. When she fell down, he hit her again with the car’s back rear.

He loaded the severe injured woman in the trunk and drove to the old German bunker 10 km away.

There and while the woman was unconscious, as he claimed that he believed, he raped her and threw her body to the labyrinth-like bunker through a ventilator shaft.

The man confessed the rape saying though that he did not know whether she was dead.

 Chania Security Police Director Paris Hinopoulos noted that the suspect said that he “was trying to find someone to have sex with,” on that day, July 2, and that “he randomly selected the specific woman for this purpose.”

No other persons were involved in Eaton’s killing, the Police in Chania said.

The question whether Suzanne Eaton was alive at the time of the rape remained unanswered.

In his confession, the suspect said she was unconscious and he did not know if she was dead.

He denied that he tried to strangulate her.

Unclear is still the exact cause of the death of the 60-year-old scientist.

Autopsy report showed that she died of suffocation. However, it could not be ascertained whether the cause of her death came from the assaulter – i.e. he closed her mouth and nose – or from the injuries she suffered when she was from his car.

Forensic findings reportedly suggest that Eaton’s body had multiple fractures of her rips, face and hands and scratches caused by a knife on her ear and body.

The 27-year-old farmer is married and has two children aged 2 and 1 years old. He got married three years ago.

According to local media, he is the son of a priest. He took a second job at the furniture shop a few months ago.

He was active in social media with some 4,000 followers. He was promoting the profile of somebody who loves the nature, the wild beauties and the secret treasuries of Crete, sports and martial arts, and his family, local media crepapost report.

He was found to be in procession of pornographic material.

He told police that he had a lot of anger inside him due to the circumstances of his life and financial problems, media reported.

Police came to his traces following a tire print on the soil outside the bunker, his mobile signal on that day and a security camera that captured his car in the area.

The man was one of the ten people brought to police station five days after Eaton’s body was found on July 9.

When he was asked by police when he was last time in the area, he replied “a few months ago.” Then police knew that the man, who has property in the broader area of the bunker, was lying.

The prosecutor of Chania pressed charges against the 27-year-old G. P. for the felony crimes of murder and rape as well as for the illegal possession of a weapon.

Suzanne Eaton was on the island to participate in a scientific conference at the Orthodox Academy of Crete and had been missing since July 2.

She met her assaulter around 2 o’ clock on July 2, very short after she left the Academy for her usual work out.

After the crime, the man said he went to a cemetery to clean his car from blood and other traces.

Suzanne Eaton’s body was found five days after her disappearance, in a cave that had also built by the Nazis during the WWII in Xamoudohori.

The perpetrator has explored the bunker in 2016 and had posted videos on his YouTube channel.

Cretan Police arrested the perpetrator on Monday, July 15.

The man has no police record. However, due to the heinous crime and the man’s sexual motive, police is planning to publish his picture in the next days in order to find other potential victims he has assaulted in the past, Alpha TV reported.