The show explored in depth a case which someone rarely meets and overturned everything in Austria and Greece.
The “suicide” of a young father was directed to cover a wild assassination …
The thriller of Dimitris Sarantis 31 years old from Larissa, played in Vienna and was unveiled in Greece. The exhumation of the corpse demanded by his relatives brought to light everything that some people wanted to cover up. Hist on the head, injection with an overdose of lethal substance and a loop on the throat after death …
Dimitris left Greece of the crisis and found himself with his young partner in Austria for a better life.
The threatening messages, the dismissal of him and his pregnant wife , the dark parking lot, the broken seats of the car, a rope attached to the handle, contradictions and twists are some of the incredible events that followed …
The tangled skein began to unfold when last March in the presentation of Angeliki Nikolouli’s book in Larissa, the voice of an unknown man suddenly heard in the crowd.
“Do you want to write another book? It is enough to tell you the story of my child … “
Later he revealed to the reporter the cowardly affair of his son …
Dimitris father of a newborn boy, lived for the last two years with his family in the suburb Mödling of Vienna and worked as a chef in a Greek restaurant with his wife assistant in the kitchen. According to his wife, on Sunday, April 3, 2016, he left with his car to go to flea market as he used to, but did not return.
Two days later he was found dead by his friends and his wife in his car, in a sports car park in the area where he was staying. A rope attached to the rear door handle was around his neck.
The Austrian authorities thought it was suicide. They closed the case without the necessary investigation and sent the dead man back to Greece without carrying out a necropsy.
His family was not convinced that Dimitris had committed suicide and sought the help of the Forensic Professor Matthaios Tsougas. With a delay of seven months, his body was exhumed by order of the Prosecutor. The findings brought the overturning …
Tunnel asked the Austrian police answers to key questions. In a document sent to the show, it is reported that no third party fault has occurred in the case, as was confirmed by the doctor who confirmed the death of Dimitris Sarantis. Typically, the answer is that this case has closed for Austrian Police.
Austria: I confirmed death, I did not make a necropsy …
“Tunnel” contacted the doctor who signed the death certificate of Dimitris Sarantis.
The pathologist said her name was written in the document as she was the one who simply confirmed the death of Dimitris Sarantis. As she explained, she is not competent to carry out a necropsy and if the Prosecutor had ordered that, it would be contacted in a hospital in Vienna.
“When police arrives at the place of death, is taking charge. If police suggest that there is no involvement of a third party, then the usual following burial procedures is started, ” she pointed out.
The role of the Consulate of Greece in Vienna in such cases, according to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is expeditionary. It is limited to the publication of a death certificate, the sending of this act to the special registry and the sending of the corpse to Greece. Because of the Schengen treaty, there is the possibility of legal assistance between the two countries through the two Prosecution Offices.
The corpse of the unfortunate young man was mummified according to the law in force and was transported to Greece with a special car.
“I did not think to declare his disappearance to the Police …”
With a calm voice, the widow of Dimitris Sarantis described to the reporter of the show what happened the fatal day he mysteriously lost his life.
It was Sunday April 3, 2016. That morning he left the house to go to a second-hand market as he used to. Around three and a half in the afternoon, he sent her a message via Viber on her mobile phone. The message was deleted, but as she said Dimitris wrote that “he could not continue, to watch after their beloved son and that nobody loves her like he did. Finally, he begged her to pay their debts. ”
As she explained in the show, they owed money to three different persons, but no one was pushing the young father to repay immediately.
A while ago their friend called her. He told her that he had received a message that worried him and suggested that they should meet to “see what they will do”.
“I went out with the baby to look for him in various places around the house. I just came back and I found his friend waiting for me. He did not want to disturb me and did not reveal to me the content of the message he had received. Then I started to call Dimitris on the phone, but his cell phone was switched off. His friend left for his job and from that time we were constantly in communication, ” she said.
In a related question she replied that it was not the first time that Dimitris sent her a similar message. Two weeks ago she received another one with same context . “He used to do that after a quarrel. He was leaving the house, then he was calm down , returning home and everything was fine … ” she stressed.
As she said, although Dimitris was considered missing for one and a half days, neither herself nor his friend thought of declaring his disappearance to the police or informing his parents and siblings in Larissa.
“The next day, we agreed with two friends to rent a car to look for him. But when they were finished of their jobs wecould not find a rental car office open. So I called another friend who had a car to help us. He promised to come in the evening after his job. ”
So it happened. Around one o’clock after midnight, Dimitris’ friends went out into the streets to look for him. As he claimed to “Tunnel” they first went to restaurants and shops. As they returned home, they decided to look at the two large parking spaces that were on the right and left of the street near the apartment they were staying and had not checked before. In the first one they entered, they saw his car.
The dark green Volkswagen was on the edge of the parking lot of a sports center. From his tinted windows they could not see if Dimitris was in the car.
“My friend approached first. He told us he saw some ropes … He turned around and asked us to get inside the car and go quickly to the Police. He left me at the house and took with him his wife who spoke English.
“I did not know the procedures …”
Immediately at the spot arrived a police car and an ambulance. The authorities did not make an autopsy, and as the young father’s widow claimed, they concluded that he had committed suicide within two hours. She went on to say that no one informed her if they checked the material from the security cameras of the nearby shops. Neither herself nor her friend were asked whether a necropsy was to be carried out as it is imposed on sudden deaths. Her husband’s mobile phone was in the car and she got it back locked without being checked. The same happened with the computer that was in the house. The family of Dimitris was briefed by his friend a few hours later.
She was not impressed by the fact that the Austrian police closed the case within a 24-hour period, as she did not know the procedures to be followed.
The widow of Dimitris Sarantis spoke to “Tunnel” about an incident that had occurred shortly before her husband was found dead.
His former boss, after being convicted , filed a lawsuit against Dimitris. He claimed he had gone to his shop, was shouting to him and threatened to kill him. “There has never been such an incident,” she said.
Tunnel also contacted the former employer of the couple. As he said, they actually had a quarrel with Dimitris on a professional level, but he never filed a lawsuit against him.
“With my mobile lens I saw him in the dark …”
,Dimitris Sarantis friend, told Tunnel that on the Sunday noon he was lost he received a message via Viber. Dimitris wrote that wanted to put an end to his life and that the money he owed to him would be taken back by his wife. Then the friend tried to answer him at first with a message that seemed to be read. Then he called him, but he did not get an answer. This continued in the next few hours until the afternoon. As he told the reporter, he cannot be sure that Dimitris himself sent the message, as he had never received anything similar in the past.
He contacted his wife who did not seem to worry about anything. He went to meet find at the house and told him that Dimitris had sent a similar message to her, but she did not ask her to see it.
The next day the only friend of the company who had a car went and took him and his wife and went to Dimitris’ house. He left his wife there to wach the baby and along with Dimitris wife, went out on the street to look for him.
“As we went, Dimitris’ wife told us that she saw in a car park near the house, a car that looked like his own, but we did not stop. We first went to several other places and on the way back we decided to check the car she had seen. It was dark but when we got there we recognized it. I approached first but I could not see anything. I lit the lens of my cell and saw ropes in the co-driver’s seat. I stuck my face to the back glass and I saw Dimitris’ head with a rope around his neck, tighten from the handle. ”
He was found dead near his house
The friend panicked from the macabre spectacle but did not say anything to the group . He urged them to re-enter the car and returned to the dead man’s house which was five minutes away. He took his wife along with the other friend and went to the police.
Ten minutes after into the parking lot arrived police, ambulance and psychologists. According to friend, the door of Dimitris’ car must have been unlocked, as no sign of violation was found by the police officers.
The car had seven-seats and when it was found, the three back seats were missing.
Responding to a reporter’s question, he said he did not assess Dimitris’ message and did not think of declaring his disappearance to the police. They used to talk often every day and never had ever figured out that he wanted to hurt himself.
He did not know if he had a necropsy and could not easily talk because he did not know the language. Their Austrian services have been guided them from the first moment they were found him dead until his body was moved to Greece. In just an hour, his friends were informed by the authorities that this was a case of suicide.
“We did what we were told. It was not easy for me to see my friend like thatI was shocked. I have visited specialists and for seven months I did not come out of my house. For me, he was like a brother … ” he said characteristically, and continued:” I ask anyone who knows something to come forward … He was a new dad with dreams …. What happened to him it is not normal … “.
The mystery in the parking lot
One of the friends of Dimitris Sarantis who offered to look for him with his car two days after he disappeared found in the parking lot and sent to Tunnel amateur footage from the place.
One can see the exact spot where the unfortunate Dimitris car was found in the parking area of the sports center. Security cameras are distinguished at various points around the parking lot. As Dimitris’s friend said, the site is unattended and does not know whether the cameras were there at night when the car was found or placed later.
The hit on the head, the injection and the loop around the neck …
Two months after his death, his family was not convinced that he had committed suicide. His relatives in their quest to learn the truth have been approached for help the forensic professor Matthew Tsougas. The scientist then explained to them that they could not only rely on the photographic material they had in their hands, and that other parameters would have to be explored.
“Relatives have led me to conclude that something else happened when they show me the condition in which the corpse was found. They called for exhumation. Unfortunately, the competent authorities have been very late to accept the request, ” he told Tunnel.
The exhumation eventually took place on November 1, 2016, seven months after the death of Dimitris Sarantis. A public prosecutor’s order was given for the necropsy, which was attended by the coroners Rubini Leontari and Christos Kravvaritis of the relevant department of the General Hospital of Larissa.
“There was a consistency in terms of objective findings, but we differ a little in the final conclusion. Personally, I went into a deeper analysis and looked at each finding separately, “Mr. Tsougas told Tunnel.
What he then revealed to the show is shocking.
“The evidence we found is not consistent with such suicide, so to say that this man was hanging from the door handle and died. My own conclusion is that he did not commit suicide, for many reasons. It’s not just my own experience, it’s also written in the forensic books. In the case of looping suicide we have the so-called vital reaction. In this case, there was a “shameless” I would say picture, interrupted in some places, without depth. This vital reaction did not exist. In retrospect, we found with colleagues coroners, throbbing bruises in the dome of the skull, which meant that there were two blows on his head caused by a wide gall bladder, ” said Mr. Tsougas and continued:
“Even worse were the findings we found in the right elbow joint at the point we used for intravenous injections. Someone injected this person before he died. I exclude it from doing it himself, because the person was right-handed and the find was in his right hand. The existence of a thrombus suggests that this injection was made when he was alive. ”
Experts in their effort to identify the substance contained in the injection experienced difficulties. This is because the corpse to be transported from Austria to Greece was obligatory, without having previously been necropsy. During taxiing the blood is replaced with formol.
” However, the substance amitriptyline was found in the liver. If one receives more than 150 mg, he or she suffers from respiratory depression, coma, and of course death, ” Mr. Tsougas said.
According to the specialist scientist appointed by the Sarantis family, the evidence identified “is to the fullest extent to support the removal of life rather than suicide.”
“In conclusion, the victim had suffered two blows loud on the head and temporarily lost contact with the environment. Then someone injected him an overdose of tranquilizer and when he stopped breathing, he hung him with a rope from the handle of the car to direct a hanging, “concluded Mr. Tsougas.
“I expected him to get married and not put him in a grave”
The family of the young father still cannot accept his loss. United like a punch, they hold their grief and collect information to reveal what really happened to him.
Theodoti Saranti mother of Dimitris described to “Tunnel” the day he suddenly announced her that he would leave abroad. “I did not get the chance to change his mind. We did not want him leave. He had his job here, but he wanted his wife to find a job also. ”
“The employer of my son and wife, who gave them a room to stay, had the requirement to pay him the insurance money of my daughter in law because she was pregnant. When my son reacted because he did not have the money to rent a better place where he would not have to share toilets with other tenants, he told them to pick their staff and leave, ” said the father of the unlucky young man and continued:
“Then they had a bad quarrel… My son had recorded everything on his cell phone. I heard what happened. His former boss, also a Greek, told him bad things about his unborn child, ” he said disappointedly.
As he said to “Tunnel”, from Sunday 3 April 2016 that his daughter in law says she received the alarming message, he was informed for the death of his child on Tuesday afternoon.
“My opinion is that the scene was set up ” he said.
Tragic figure the 30-year-old man’s mother.
“If my daughter in law told me she received this message, me and my husband would go there! When I asked her why she did not told me about it she answered, “And what would you do from so far away?” Then she said she had no signal or internet connection …. Why; Why; That ‘why’ bothers me … ‘.
She said that on Monday April 4, the day after her son’s death, without knowing what had happened, she kept calling him constantly on the phone and left him voice messages for his birthdays. She called her daughter in law, but she was not answering the phone.
“My child was dead and I was calling him leaving him messages …” she said bitterly.
The brother of Dimitris Kostas Sarantis described to “Tunnel” what happened when his death was known. “His friends at the beginning told us to go to Vienna, then they decided that it was not necessary because they had arranged everything … When we received the documents after a long time, we found that what they had told us was not valid. At first they said that his friend opened the car door but found my brother under a tree. He touched him and realized he was dead. Then said they did not touch the car Something that had happened earlier … “.
He claimed that when he asked Demetris friend what had happened, he told him that the victim had opened the trunk, had tied the rope from the tree, sat in the driver’s seat, stepped on the throttle, and he was killed… Then his friend got back what he had originally supported.
A few days before he left life, Dimitris had informed his family that they would visit them in Larissa with his wife and their newborn baby. In fact, he was looking to find cheaper tickets.
“I was expecting my child. I was preparing his room and bought a double bed for the couple and a baby swing … He had a purpose in October to do his religious wedding and baptize the baby. I waited for my child to get married not to put him in a grave … “said the tragic mother.
“My child would not commit suicide for the five thousand euros he owed. His baby was forty days old. With great effort we managed to prove with the help of Mr. Tsougas that our child did not commit suicide. They did not make a necropsy. Some wanted within two and a half hours to embody it. Who gave the order for this? “Dimitris’s father stressed to” Tunnel “.
Refering to the gaps in this case, the brother of the victim said: “Investigations were not done as they should. Neither testimonies were taken, nor anything. ”
When he visited Dimitris’ house a week after his funeral, he saw an inhospitable place as if his brother never lived there. There was not one photograph of him and all his personal objects were gathered and thrown under the couch.
“He loved people, life, he had a lot of power inside him … He was a smiling person. My child inside me is alive… ” were the words of his mother who, in her attempt to feel her son close to her , wears his sunglasses, has in her purse his wallet and other personal items.
“I will continue the fight to reveal the truth about what happened to our child even if I am dead …” concluded the father of the unlucky young man.
As a homicide the case at the iinvestigator office
From his part, the legal representative of the family Stelios Sourlas stressed on the show:
“The family has filed a lawsuit against any person responsible for manslaughter intentionally and asks for the investigation of any other offense. The case is in the process of investigation. ”
He said there were criminal omissions such as not taking DNA, investigating the car or the house, removing the privacy of the victim’s cell phone, or searching for electronic traces.
Because of the Schengen treaty, there is a possibility of judicial assistance between Austria and Greece through the two Prosecutors’ Offices.
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