A 23-year-old man in Chrysochori of Kavala of the Municipality of Nestos, has beaten his grandmother to death over a glass of water.
The man, who has an extensive history of mental illness attacked his 83-year-old grandmother because she asked him for a glass of water in the middle of the night. The man went to the kitchen but then returned to the couch where his grandmother was and beat her to death in an outrage. He reportedly hit her in the head with his punches and then proceeded to bash her with a metal object.
According to local media, the murder took place around 4 o’ clock on Monday morning (local time) but the man beat her for several hours until she passed.
The suspect, has been hospitalised in a psychiatric facility in the past and had been arrested several times over the years for drug-related offenses and other violent acts.
“It was an expected [outcome]. We knew that things would not end well,” said Dimosthenis Dalkaranis, President of the village of Chrysochori to state TV broadcaster ERT. Neither the suspect nor the victim were named.
“There was trouble every so often that demanded a response from the police, and we sent people over from the Help at Home program a few times, but they were turned away, both by the deceased and by the perpetrator,” Dalkaranis said.
“Social Services had removed the 23-year-old from the house twice in the past couple of years and took him to a psychiatric facility, but he was released shortly after on both occasions and allowed to go back home,” he said.
“We had advised her,” he added, “to take action when his mother left the family several years ago and his father, 62, who also reportedly suffers from mental health problems, moved out of the main house and into a remote shed in the garden but she did not want the Help at Home program to step in”.
Help at Home is the municipal outreach program that provides assistance for the elderly and ill at their homes, but no explanation has been recorded on why the woman would never allow any intervention.
The man, reportedly confessed to hitting her when he was arrested by police, Kathimerini reported, adding that authorities were called by a local undertaker who testified that he had received a call from the man telling him his grandmother died because of a fall. The funeral home clerk, suspicious, told him to call a doctor and the Police.
Upon arriving at the scene the medical examiner saw the the woman’s body showed signs of extensive injuries that were more consistent with a physical assault than an accident, though a forensic pathologist still has to determine the exact cause of death.
In a statement that shocked the community the man said “I had beaten her many times in the past and she had never before died because of it”.
It is not yet clear whether the 23-year-old had been taken to prison or to a psychiatric facility.
