Student’s brutal murder solved?
Over six years after the brutal murder of a female medical student in Larissa, charges were brought yesterday against her former boyfriend, who is suspected of killing the young woman when she turned down his marriage proposal. Paraskevi Gatidou, a 21-year-old from the northern town of Serres who was studying in Larissa, was found dead with 104 stab wounds in her flat in the central Greek town on September 27, 1997. Police found no signs of forced entry into the young woman’s flat, while none of her possessions had been stolen. Suspicion had initially fallen on the student’s boyfriend, but the 29-year-old Larissa man denied any involvement and police were unable to find sufficient evidence to allow his prosecution. The student’s parents did not give up hope of bringing their daughter’s killer to justice, and mounted an investigation of their own. This uncovered enough new evidence for the suspect – whose name was not made public – to be formally interrogated earlier this year, and finally indicted on murder charges.
