Prosecutor seeks negligence probe over April 5 double murder

A prosecutor in Larissa, central Greece, ordered an investigation on Tuesday into the possibility that law enforcement and metal health services could have prevented the murder of a 28-year-old woman and her 30-year-old brother in the Thessaly village of Makrinitsa earlier this month.

The prosecutor is seeking a probe into the chronology of events that led up to the stabbing murder of the siblings, believed to have been carried out by the 28-year-old’s estranged husband, who allegedly started exhibiting signs of increased mental instability and violence in the wake of their breakup last fall.

According to state broadcaster ERT, the young woman, who had a young child with the 32-year-old suspect, was forced to leave her home in the town of Volos and move in with her parents in Makrinitsa around Christmas. On January 15, she reported the 32-year-old to the police and demanded that he be remanded to a mental health facility after he threatened to kill her.

The suspect was reportedly examined by a state psychiatrist on March 11 and refused medical treatment, prompting a decision that he should be committed to care. A few weeks later – pending implementation of the decision – he turned up in Makrinitsa, where he barged into the family home and attacked the victims’ parents when they tried to push him out. ERT reported that he was arrested for that incident but released just a few hours later even though the 28-year-old woman had filed a restraining order.

On April 5 the suspect allegedly went back to the family’s house, where he stabbed the 28-year-old and her brother to death with a 25-centimeter knife, while the father hid in a closet with his 2.5-year-old grandchild. The siblings’ mother and grandmother reportedly witnessed the stabbings.