At the execution prosecutor’s office at the former Evelpidon school’s courts, Irene Mourtzoukou was taken shortly after 9:15 a.m. to execute her arrest warrant.

She is then expected to be taken to the investigating magistrate of Achaia to be given a deadline to enter a plea over the coming weekend.

Yesterday, she spent the whole night in the GADA detention center after being arrested outside a well-known hotel in the center of Athens.

“Help me, I haven’t hurt the children.”

“They’re in a bad state of mind. She was crying and kept saying she was innocent. As soon as she saw me, she said, ‘Help me please, I haven’t hurt any children.’Once we get the file, we will answer each of the charges,” Irini Mourtzoukou’s lawyer Nikos Alexandris tells protothema.gr, describing her arrest as an “expected development.”

Accused of the murder of 3 children and an attempted murder

The 24-year-old who wailed for months in television windows is now charged with the deaths of her two children in 2022 and 2023, her best man’s infant daughter in 2021, and the attempted murder of an adult friend by drowning. The common denominator… the presence of Irene Mourtzoukou in all the deaths.

Specifically:

-On February 4, 2021, Irini Mourtzoukou watched over the 6-month-old infant of her then-girlfriend and best man as the child’s mother had entrusted her with his care. At 5:00 in the morning, the child develops bronchial congestion and dies. He is admitted dead to the Karamandaneio Hospital and according to the forensic report,t the cause of death is listed as “Interstitial pneumonitis of childhood”.

-On June 19, 2022, Irini Mourtzoukou is found with her 19-month-old infant at their home in Patras. At 01:00 in the morning and while she is sleeping with her infant, she notices difficulty in breathing and because his condition is getting worse, she calls the ambulance. The infant is taken to the Health Centre of Kato Achaia where he is subsequently pronounced dead. The autopsy report is submitted to the Public Prosecutor of Patras and the cause of death is stated as being due to interstitial pneumonitis of childhood.

-On October 17, 2023 the two-month-old baby of Irene Mourtzoukou dies at the General Children’s Hospital of Athens “Agia Sophia” where she was hospitalized. He had been transferred to this hospital from Karamandaneio Hospital on 18/09/2023 and was hospitalized until his death. The preliminary investigation for the death of this infant was undertaken by the Police Department of Ampelokipoi, from where the autopsy-necropsy was ordered to the Athens Forensic Service and which indicates as the cause of sudden death a pathological history of epilepsy.

Panagiotakis’ death opened the investigation

The tangle of the complex case, however, began to unravel with the death of another child, the little Panagiotakis, in August 2024, in the house where Irini Mourtzoukou and the mother of the 15-month-old infant were staying together, in Amaliada. On the day of Panagiotakis’ death, both women were in the house,e and the mother of the child was absent for a few minutes, having gone to the bathroom for some work.

And the arrest of Irini Mourtzoukou may not yet be linked to the death of little Panagiotis, but the investigation of the authorities is in full swing as, as reliable sources tell protothema.gr, they have already been invited to testify forensic experts who have given their opinion as technical consultants on the circumstances of the death of the 15-month-old infant.

Smoking: The common finding in all three children

The findings of the two pathologist-analysts of the four-member committee of the EL.AS Stamatios Theocharis and Nikolaos Goutas played a decisive role in the stormy developments. The two experts found evidence of hypoxia in the thymus gland and liver in both Irene Mourtzoukou’s two children and in the child of her best man.

“We have fought a struggle all this time with dignity and respect for the authorities. My instructors are at the disposal of the competent investigator and will contribute what they know.

The souls of the unfortunate infants who unfortunately could not defend themselves are vindicated,” the lawyer of the father of the 6-month-old infant, Anastasios Dugas, told protothema.gr.