Woman left to die in makeshift monastery
A 76-year-old woman on the island of Salamina, near Piraeus, who had turned the house she lived in with her deaf sister into an unofficial monastery, was left to die by robbers who bound and gagged her, police said yesterday. Officers were called to the home, which doubled as a monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary, after neighbors found the deaf woman standing in the middle of the road, looking dazed and appealing for help. Police found the 76-year-old gagged and bound to a chair inside the house. A coroner found that she had died of asphyxiation. Her sister was able to tell officers, with the help of a sign-language interpreter, that two thieves had broken into the property on Monday night and tied up the two elderly women. Officers believe that the robbers targeted the property as they expected to find valuable religious items there.
