Babis Muralashvili, 41 years old, came out alive from the wreckage of his car, after a serious traffic accident he had at the entrance to the village of Polychrono Kassandra.
It was the night of Sunday October 2, 2022 when passing motorists stopped at the scene where his car had overturned. The scene they witnessed will remain unforgettable. A man bloodied and completely confused holding a screwdriver was looking at them without seeing them….
He asked them what they were looking for with the flashlight in the scrap metal, and when they answered, “the driver, maybe he needs help,” he told them: “He’s not here, he’s gone. Look for the passenger…”.
By the time they realized that there was no passenger, the injured driver had disappeared from the face of the earth and has remained missing ever since.
The unfortunate expatriate was returning from Pefkohori, Halkidiki, where he had visited a friend. Shortly after nine in the evening, he took the road to Thessaloniki at breakneck speed, resulting in his car swerving and overturning.
“We were looking for a passenger and he got lost…”
A resident from the village of Pefkohori told “Tunel”: “We were informed about the accident a little later when we saw many cars on the road and we also went to see what had happened. It was a pretty battered car. The driver was missing and we were looking to find him. We learned that someone passing by saw him and asked him if he was okay. He replied that the passenger had hit.”
The strange thing about the whole case is that there was no passenger in the car and the missing person was confused from the post-traumatic shock.
“The fire department and the police came to the scene to search for the driver. They searched the whole area and for many hours, but without finding anything. The drivers who stopped at the scene saw him but because they were looking for the passenger, as he had said, he disappeared.”
The president of the Chanioti Community, Ioannis Lemonis, said that no resident or shop owner saw him after the accident.
“The car was found, but not the driver. There was some talk that he might have been seen, but nothing concrete. The information stops there. There is no other such testimony and besides the village is small. If he asked for help from someone, it is certain that we would call the doctor. The area has enough taxis, I have spoken to the drivers, but no one saw him and at that time there were no buses either”, he concluded.
Witness describes the shocking image he saw…
The Tunnel identified the man who was found at the scene of the car accident and was the last person to see Babis before he disappeared.
Panagiotis Dolkeras was returning from Halkidiki to Thessaloniki on the evening of Sunday, October 2, when suddenly the missing person’s car overtook him at speed on the road towards Polychrono.
“He was running twice as fast as me, maybe 200. He impressed me and I said he’s going to get killed. In the bends of the road ahead I saw glass, fragments and I stopped in case something bad happened to help,” said the witness speaking to the show.
The car had climbed the foot of the mountain, hit the guardrails on the other side of the road and flipped over.
“I suddenly saw a man. He was wearing a white shirt with black horizontal markings and told me not to look for nothing because the driver has gone to the village. When I asked how he knew, he started walking backwards in shock.”
A few minutes later, other people gathered at the scene of the serious accident and Babis appeared again, again telling Mr. Dolquera that he was looking badly.
“He was also holding a screwdriver. I realized it was him when the Police came and found his passport in the car. I recognized him from the photo. We looked in the reeds to see if he was there, but he was gone.”
“He disappeared from our sight injured…”
Another eyewitness to the horrific traffic accident that Babis Muralashvili had, before he disappeared, spoke to “Tunnel”.
Ioanna Kataveli was right behind his car and as she reported, she saw him leave the scene of the accident on foot and covered in blood.
“There was another couple behind us and we stopped. We went with a flashlight to see what was going on,” said the witness and added:
“I say to him “oh you were in the car” and he answered me negatively saying that he just finished work”.
Witnesses called the police but the driver had disappeared.
“When they opened his bag, we saw his ID and I recognized him.
I was saying, how far can he go injured like that? We were all looking after that, but we couldn’t find anything in the vicinity.”
“Before we ate together”
Shortly before the tragic event, the missing person called his friend in Halkidiki to meet.
“It was sudden, I didn’t expect it. We sat for about two hours together to eat. It was dusk, around seven o’clock. He talked to me a lot about Mount Athos. He had visited it in the past and he liked it very much”, said Apostolis Koutsikas.
His friend also talked about their childhood years when they were inseparable.
“We were very close as children, we grew up together, we worked together, we generally hung out a lot as friends. Then we kind of got lost because he went abroad for work, but we kept in touch through social media.”
Mr. Koutsikas spoke about what unfolded shortly before, but also after the fatal incident.
“While leaving, the car started at a very fast speed and I became worried. I then called him but his mobile was switched off. The next day I called him many times, he didn’t pick up and his sister informed me about the car accident and his disappearance.”
Babis was hit on the head when he was young, as a result of which he has some memory gaps and his relatives fear that he suffered some kind of post-traumatic shock and is confused.
“I believe that if he found a way to leave, he will be in Mount Athos. Because a motorcycle was passing by at that time, he probably feared that it hit him and killed him, and that’s why he ran away. Maybe he is somewhere and hiding, because from the police search in the hospitals, nothing was found”, added his friend.
He was not found in the hospitals…
Apostolis Koutsikas spoke to the “Tunnel” camera from the spot where the incredible traffic accident took place.
“I found out the other day in the afternoon. His sister called me and informed me that they only found the car and he was missing.
“From the Traffic Police they informed us about witnesses who say that they saw the missing person walking in shock in the middle of the night and some people were already talking to him.”
Investigations were carried out by the police, the fire department, and also by volunteers for two days, but no trace of the driver was found. In the car was money and all his personal belongings.
“I transferred him inside Mount Athos”
The show located and spoke with a witness who lives and works in Mount Athos, who claims to have seen the missing man after his disappearance.
“I met him here on Mount Athos and took him by car just before Dafni between Xiropotamos Monastery and Simonopetra Monastery. I knew him from a long time ago, we had met at the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi since he worked there, as did I. I tried to open a conversation with him, but he was curious and I said “soon he will have his issues”. He had a small sack with him. I left him in Dafni and went back to Karyes. I haven’t seen him since.” Referring to the time he met him, he said:
“It’s definitely been a long time. I don’t remember exactly, it was winter and certainly before December 3 because then I left Mount Athos for a while. I didn’t know he had crashed badly and then disappeared.”
Babis lived for years with his family in Provatas Serron. His parents and siblings moved to Georgia and through the “Tunnel” they appeal to anyone who knows what happened to let them know.
“To give my heart as long as he is alive…”
The sister and mother of the missing man turned to the “Tunnel” in an attempt to find out what has happened to their man. From Georgia where they are, they spoke to a journalist of the show.
“The whole family is in pieces, my mother doesn’t know what to think, my father and my brother are the same and as the days pass, we certainly think the worst,” said his sister Maria.
She herself describes him as a good-hearted young man, who would even give his heart for anyone, because he ached for everyone. He believes that it is very possible that the script has found refuge on Mount Athos.
“He spoke very often about Mount Athos, that he wanted to go there. He visited it often and stayed for a long time. His friend who saw him last, told us that in the conversation they had, he was very insistent that he wanted to go there. An investigation was carried out by us and by the Halkidiki traffic police, to no avail. Only, that an acquaintance of his told us that he saw him there. There is also the possibility that he entered illegally. Maybe he is confused and after the car accident he wanted to be alone for a while.”
Maria appealed to anyone who knows anything to inform the police or the “Tunnel” to finally put an end to their agony.
His mother couldn’t hold back her tears while speaking to the show’s camera.
“Being away and not being able to do anything… Except I haven’t gone crazy yet, going through that as a mother. To raise a child until the age of 41 and then not know where he has disappeared… I am asking God that no other mother will be found in my place and the Virgin Mary that I will know where my son is. I hope they won’t let me lose him… Now I’m not alive. Even my heart to give, as long as he is alive…”
Babis Muralashvili has a height of 1.70, blue-green eyes and his special characteristic is a mole under the left eye and a scar on the back left part of the head from an earlier blow.
When she went missing she was wearing blue sweatpants, a matching sweatshirt and a white blouse.
A Silver Alert has been issued for his disappearance.
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