Agios Panteleimonas: What the autopsy revealed about the body of the 24-year-old woman found in a suitcase

New details emerged on Monday afternoon (November 9) following the autopsy of the body found inside a suitcase in the Agios Panteleimonas area on Sunday afternoon (November 8).

Authorities initially managed to identify the body through fingerprints. According to information obtained, the victim was a 24-year-old woman from Burkina Faso.

She had been missing since October 29, when a friend reported her disappearance to the Kypseli Police Station.

The autopsy revealed no injuries on the 24-year-old woman’s body. Authorities have collected samples and are awaiting the results of histological and toxicological examinations. At this stage, therefore, the cause of death remains undetermined.

Death by asphyxiation or the use of substances has not been ruled out. Meanwhile, questions remain over who placed the woman’s body inside the suitcase and abandoned it at the location where it was discovered.

How the case unfolded

The suitcase was discovered late on Sunday afternoon (November 8) by a 30-year-old local resident, who noticed it abandoned on the pavement next to a rubbish bin at 5 Alkamenous Street, in the wider Agios Panteleimonas area.

His attention was drawn to a strong smell of decomposition. As he approached the suitcase, he realised that human body parts were protruding from it.

Shocked by the discovery, he rushed to the Agios Panteleimonas Police Station to alert officers. Police forces soon cordoned off the area.

The first officers to arrive at the scene confirmed that a human limb was protruding from the suitcase. Upon opening it, they were confronted with the gruesome discovery.

Teams from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Homicide Division of the Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (DAOE) were called to the scene and took over the investigation. A forensic pathologist also arrived shortly afterwards to examine the body.

The forensic pathologist established that the victim’s legs had been tied together, although there were no visible injuries.

During their investigation, police officers determined that municipal waste collection in the area takes place once every 24 hours. This suggests that the suitcase could only have been abandoned at the location by the perpetrator or perpetrators within the 24 hours preceding its discovery.

However, the time of death was estimated to have been five to seven days earlier.

This indicates that the perpetrator or perpetrators had kept the victim’s body at another location, possibly where she died, before transporting it to the site where it was discovered at some point on Sunday.

Police have collected CCTV footage from the surrounding area in an effort to identify those responsible for abandoning the suitcase.

Authorities also believe that the location where the young woman lost her life, under circumstances that remain mysterious, may be somewhere in the wider city centre area.