Additional child murder charges brought against mother

Prosecutors investigating the mysterious death of two children in the space of two years brought additional murder charges against their mother who is already in pre-trial detention over the killing of her 9-year-old daughter.

Roula Pispirigou, from the southern port city of Patras, is now facing three homicide charges after prosecutors Antonis Eleftherianos and Apostolos Andreou concluded that she is responsible for the deaths of 3-year-old daughter Malena and 6-month-old Iris, as well as 9-year-old Georgina. 

The the 33-year-old was arrested in March after an anesthetic drug was found in tissue Georgina’s samples who died in January following a lengthy stay in the hospital. Malena died from liver failure in 2019 and Iris in 2021 from a suspected heart defect.

The additional charges are based on the findings of the new forensic report by coroners Nikos Karakoukis and Nikos Kalogrias, which showed that they both died of asphyxiation instead of natural causes, as well as on the testimonies of nurses and doctors who were present during the hospitalizations of the two girls. An additional element was that Pispirigou was the only one present at the time of their death, which was also the case with Georgina’s death. 

Pispirigou has denied any wrongdoing.