Man whose body was found in freezer probably murdered, says police

A retired sailor whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in an apartment near downtown Athens last week was probably suffocated to death, the preliminary results of a postmortem examination have shown.

The 65-year-old’s body was discovered by a bailiff serving a seizure warrant at an apartment in the southern neighborhood of Kallithea that had been declared by a 45-year-old Bulgarian woman as her home. It is believed that the body had been frozen for at least year, coinciding with the time that the victim’s brother had reported him missing.

Police are looking for the 45-year-old woman, who had a child with the victim, and have issued an international warrant for her arrest through Interpol.

Investigators believe that the woman may have acted alone in suffocating the 65-year-old by taping his mouth shut and placing a plastic bag over his head. They reportedly said that she is of a heavyset build and could have overpowered the slight man.

More clues are expected to emerge once the lab tests of the postmortem are completed.