Photos of a mansion belonging to Greek tycoon Athanasios Tachmintzis have gone viral.
Mr Tachmintzis, 70, a father of five, lived in the imposing mansion near King’s Langley Hertfordshire before he disappeared suddenly more than three years ago.
Mystery surrounds the disappearance of Mr Tachmintzidis, who bought the property since 1999. Mr Tachmintzidis wife, Sharon, died in May 2004 at the age of 52. Together, she and Mr Tachmintzidis had five children: Alexis, 43, Nicholas, 41, Paul, 36, Kristiana, 34 and Alicia, 28.
Mr Tachmintzidis, a property millionaire, lived in the mansion with his two daughters and at least one of his sons, and had, at some point stationed guards on the gate and kept Dobermans as guard dogs.
Suddenly, three years ago, without any apparent reason, the mansion was left abandoned with plates still in the dishwasher, half-used shampoo beside the jacuzzi, a Bentley in the driveway as well as four or five cars left outside and a large numbers of possessions inside.
Last week, photos taken by an urban explorer emerged. The well-preserved mansion showed designer clothes still hanging and a game of unfinished chess on a table. In one of the rooms, a snooker table has the cue and balls still on the table as though it were left mid-match.
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A villager is reported to have said that he rode his horse down the road every day and realised all of a sudden that people living in the mansion seemed to have just disappeared. They left undetected and never returned.
“At first the gates were just shut and then a padlock and chain appeared on them. You could just see the grass getting longer and longer and growing around the cars,” he said.
“Nobody around here has a clue what happened to them and why they just upped and left. It is a real mystery. They obviously had loads of money because it is a big house. There were always lots of comings and goings with different people going in and out.
“They used to have up to three Dobermans. His two daughters would walk them, and sometimes the cleaner would take them out, but they were too big for her to handle and she had to stop. I was concerned about the dogs because you would sometimes hear them howling.”
The daughters who lived in the mansion were described as pretty and it is believed that they used the local health club.
Land Registry records reveal the house has been owned since 1999 by a company called Ainhurst Enterprises Ltd, based overseas, with a care of address at a firm of solicitors in Bournemouth, Dorset. There are a number of charges for allegedly unpaid bills made against the abandoned house which are owed to the power company and council.
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No sooner were the photos made public that the police made six arrests after burglars saw the photos and went to the mansion to steal some of the belongings.