Greek police said that a Greek priest shot to death as he sat in his car alongside a road in the Peloponnese while his wife got out to urinate was killed by her lover in a set-up to get rid of her husband.
One of two alleged shooters, and the 43-year-old wife of 51-year-old Father Athanasios Avgeropoulos, a father of three children, were arrested on Sept. 4, the day after the murder in Zacharo in the region of Ilia.
According to preliminary reports, Avgeropoulos, who was from Pyra in Fokida, had received numerous threats by telephone from an unknown man. He was shot by two men riding a motorcycle after withdrawing an undisclosed amount of cash from an ATM machine at a rest stop nearby.
Police questioned the cleric’s wife, who witnessed the shooting, and found inconsistencies in her story that led them to suspect she was involved. Further questioning revealed that she was having an affair with a 41-year-old man suspected of being one of the perpetrators. The names of the alleged shooters and the wife were not given.
The woman told police she was 300-400 meters away from the car when she heard the shooting and turned back to the car immediately, where she found her husband’s dead body covered in blood. Local police officers rushed to the scene but the wife was said to be shocked and unable to give details other than she saw two men escape on a black motorbike.
Greek media initially reported that it seemed the killing was a result of a robbery but police said they quickly discovered that the woman had been having an affair with one of the alleged shooters for several years. They said she admitted her affair as well as her involvement in the case, according to newsbeast.gr. The couple’s children were taken to the police department to be questioned about what they knew.
Police said they suspected the woman because her story didn’t add up, including that she was 300-meters away, that they had withdrawn a large sum of money although they were close to her birthplace, a small village in the area, and that the suspects did not take the bag that held the money when they escaped.
They said while she claimed to be shocked she gave some precise details, including the exact time of the shooting and when she said she fell unconscious. Police also said they were suspicious because the victim was shot eight times, revealing a personal motivation.
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