New forensic probe ordered over deaths of younger daughters in Patra case
The prosecutors investigating a 33-year-old woman from the western port city of Patra who stands accused of killing her 9-year-old daughter have asked for an entirely new forensic probe into the deaths of the woman’s other two girls, in 2021 and 2019.
According to state broadcaster ERT, forensic investigators will seek to determine whether foul play may have been involved in the deaths of Irida, who was six months old when she passed away in the family’s Patra home in March last year, and Malena, who died in hospital in July 2019 at the age of 3.
Malena’s death had reportedly been documented as being caused by liver failure, while the official coroner’s report on Irida has not been completed, as the probe into her death has only gotten as far as ruling out genetic causes.
Tuesday’s request for a fresh forensic investigation comes in the wake of findings indicating that 33-year-old Roula Pispirigkou may have administered a lethal dose of the drug ketamine to her eldest daughter, Georgina, while the child was being treated in hospital in January for mysterious symptoms reported by the mother.
Investigators are also hoping to find clues into the deaths of the three children on Georgina’s tablet, which was exhumed last week from the young girl’s grave, where it had been buried along with a few other of her belongings.
