Thanasis Siggaris, 50, a father of three, was found dead last May in a field in Amyntaio, Florina, while returning home with a friend’s motorbike.
A traffic accident, local police ruled and rushed to close the case. The family and friends of the victim, from the first moment, began investigations to prove the opposite: that the veteran soccer player of “Hermes” Amyntaiou was found in a staged death scene.
The “Tunnel” traveled to the place where this strange story took place and brought to light important elements that are now leading the research in new directions.
The technical adviser of the family, Panagiotis Madias, after an autopsy at the place where the victim was found dead, found traces of red paint on the vehicle he was driving. According to him, this raises many questions, as the owner stressed that when he lent it to the unfortunate family man, these signs did not exist.
The witnesses fell on controversies on the show’s camera. They were the last people seeing him alive in a neighboring village cafe. One of them had been arguing with the veteran soccer player a while ago, when he tried to protect the cafe from another friend whose “brutal” company had made a scene.
The strange thing about the whole case, is that the next day when Sigaris was found dead, a close friend killed himself leaving a note in which he wrote that he was going to meet him…
What did his daughter say about the “friend” who was with him…
The victim’s daughter, who had contact with him over the phone, a few minutes before the crash, spoke at “Tunnel” from abroad where she was at the time.
“I don’t want to blame anyone, I just feel very curious about the way it was done and I want to look it up better because there are definitely questions,” she said. She realized that her father was hanging out with someone who had differences, because he told her that he would “take care of it…”
The fight and the threats…
The victim’s wife shocked and at an emotional state by all that happened, spoke to the “Tunnel’s” camera.
A few months before the crash, Thanasis Sigaris had a fight with other customers in the café where he used to go, for a non important reason. “Because he argued with them, they told him, we wouldn’t let it pass. In the afternoon, shortly before the fatal crash, he found himself in another cafe with a man from the same company. Did something happen between them?”
The next day a suicide came to complicate the case even more. She learned that her husband’s friend had committed suicide and left a note, at the end of which he was saying he was going to find him…
Did they hit him somewhere else and transferred him to the field?
The family-designated technical adviser and traffic expert carried out an autopsy on the spot where Thanasis Sigaris was found dead.
Speaking to “Tunnel’s” camera, Panagiotis Madias, said that the most likely scenario would be an accident in some of the previous turns that are even sharper than in the area where he deviated from.
The spot where the victim’s motorcycle was found is also worth investigating. “If it had suddenly gotten into high speed, the motorcycle would have had to be diverted at a close range rather than 70 meters,” he says.
The technical consultant also found traces of red paint on the motorcycle that were nor there in advance. This raises many questions about the conditions under which the unfortunate man lost control of his motorbike.
“I have requested the police authority to turn to the Criminal Investigations Directorate to find out where these red-tinted prints came from,” he told Tunnel.
“Tunnel” follows the last traces of the victim…
The camera recorded the last people Thanasis Sigaris had contacted shortly before he was found dead in a field. The owner of the café, where the victim was earlier, describes exactly what happened that fateful afternoon, with whom the victim spoke at the cafe, and the time he left.
The key witness who was in the same café and the owner, disagreed over who was the first to leave the room. The witness claimed that he left before the victim, while the owner claims that Sigaris first left and half an hour later the other customer.
The witness who was discussing in the café with the victim before he was found dead, he changed many times his sayings. The two men had quarreled in the past, with the witness claiming he did not remember that. After “Tunnel’s” journalist insistence he replied: “Now I remember that night he mentioned to me the quarrel that had happened before. But there was no tension between us.”
“I didn’t see any traces of the motorcycle on the road when I found him …”
The man who found the unfortunate victim fallen into the field and immediately alerted the authorities, spoke to the “Tunnel’s” camera.
“I didn’t notice any brakes on the road. Something happened for him to be found there”, he said.
The owner of the motorcycle, who had lent it to the victim and friend, refers to the red marks found on the motorbike and which he claims that they did not exist before the accident.
“When I gave it to Sakis, the motorcycle didn’t have these scratches on it. We all lost it. How did he get there, at this point? The hit must have been from something heavy on him”, he told Tunnel.
“They say it happened here in the field, but we didn’t find any traces…”
The victim’s brother-in-law was at the scene a few hours after the crash and, six months later, spoke to a Tunnel reporter from the same area.
He himself, emotionally, identifies the gaps and shows in front of the camera the field with the sandy ground “that could not cause such a fatal injury,” as he says.
“When I arrived on site, I saw no traces of the motorcycle passing. Something could have been done somewhere else and moved here,” he said.
“He was one of the best ‘ERMIS’ footballers”
Lefteris Karapanagiotides, Technical Director at the “ERMIS” Amyndeos football team, where the unfortunate victim was an active member of the veterans, talks about Thanassis Sigaris. He describes him as a quiet man, a very competent footballer, who was also participating in charity games. His teammate talks about a very special man and no one had to say something bad about him.
A relative of the veteran football player who saw him at noon told the show:
“It seems weird to fall at that point, hit only his head and die instantly. We all got shocked.”
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