Student’s death on Kalymnos caused by accident, coroner finds
A 21-year-old university student whose body was found on the southeastern Aegean island of Kalymnos on Saturday a week after he had been reported missing, died of a fall and was not murdered as initially suspected.
A coroner on Tuesday said the autopsy showed that Nikos Hatzipavlou died after falling from a height and sustaining extensive injuries.
Investigators on the island had been baffled by the fact that the young man’s body was discovered at a location that had already been thoroughly searched by police after Hatzipavlou was reported missing. His bicycle had also been found abandoned nearby, concentrating the search around that area.
The injuries and bruises on the 21-year-old student’s body, meanwhile, combined with the fact that the area is known to be frequented by drug dealers, indicated that Hatzipavlou may have fallen victim to foul play.
The truth, however, appears even more disturbing, as the coroner said that Hatzipavlou did not die instantly from the fall but suffered for hours or even days. The expert added it was likely that torrential rains carried the young man to the location where his body was later found.
Hatzipavlou was a student at the National Technical University of Athens and was on Kalymnos visiting his mother, a schoolteacher.
