New clues in the “thriller” case unfolding in Thessaloniki, involving a 50-year-old woman accused of murdering her husband by sponsoring quantities of mercury, brings to light protothema.gr.

This is a case that is characterized as a “puzzle” as the first time that the law enforcement authorities were concerned was in 2018 when the 60-year-old victim was transferred to the hospital Papanikolaou with a possible ischaemic episode but not confirmed. During his hospitalization, doctors allegedly found suspicious mercury discharges from his ears, while the police were informed. Two months later, after the victim was discharged from the hospital, he died, with his death attributed to pathological causes.

On Tuesday morning, the prosecutor filed charges against the victim’s wife, originally from Poland, for intentional homicide and after she pleaded guilty to the investigating was released under the conditions of not leaving the country and appearing at a police station in her area.

According to reports, the case was taken off the record after a phone call to authorities “pointed” to the 50-year-old as being responsible for her husband’s death, and among the evidence was that she was falling into “inconsistencies”during her questioning by police officers about a number of mercury thermometers she had bought before her husband’s death and about pharmaceutical preparations.

The Chronicle

According to information from protothema.gr, it all began in the afternoon of July 4, 2018, when during the hospitalization of the 60-year-old in the hospital Papanikolaou, a doctor detected an outflow of liquid substance from his right ear, a substance that resembled mercury. During his subsequent examination by an ENT, pellets of the same substance were also detected in the other ear. The substance was recovered and after laboratory tests, it was found to be elemental mercury.

Meanwhile, the same metal was found in another hospital bed, where earlier in the day the deceased had undergone an encephalogram, while the hospital assured the Hellenic Police that the element in question was not used in any way.

With the investigation into the incident underway, when police officers asked the 60-year-old man if he had taken mercury himself he not only denied it but also declared complete ignorance about the finding of mercury in the auditory canals.

The man had been transferred by ambulance to the hospital a few days earlier and specifically on June 25, 2018 and was hospitalized due to “an episode of disturbance of the level of consciousness, with confusion and loss of urine” and since then he was hospitalized at the hospital’s Neurology Clinic, without, however, diagnosing the cause of the aforementioned symptoms. One of the elements that rang a bell is that the symptoms, during his hospitalisation, showed particular fluctuations of unknown origin. However, after toxicological tests were carried out, during his hospitalization, due to the detection of metallic mercury in his auditory canals, the active substance lorazepam (which is present in the pharmaceutical preparation TAVOR) was detected in elevated levels and in fluctuations that indicated more than one ingestion in the hospital.

Specifically, according to the same information, it was discerned that, during the period from 25-06-2018 to 14-07-2018, while the 60-year-old was hospitalized, he was administered at least five times, large quantities of benzodiazepines (lorazepam). For this particular substance, the hospital assured that it was not administered, while, as it was found, the only visitors were his wife and his eldest son.

Death and exhumation

The 60-year-old man was discharged from the hospital on July 23, 2018, after his health had improved, however, in the early morning hours of September 9, 2018, while he and his wife were inside their home, he died suddenly and his death was pronounced by a physician from the mobile unit of the NCAB. However, no forensic autopsy and toxicological tests followed, nor was there a preliminary investigation into the death, due to the issuance of a death certificate by a private retired doctor, who was called by the appointed funeral home, with an alleged cause of death of “cardiac arrest”, followed by his burial.

Once the police officers handling the case were informed of the 60-year-old’s death, they informed the Thessaloniki Prosecutor’s Office and a Preliminary Examination was ordered into the circumstances of his death, in the context of which, three months later, exhumation of his body took place and an autopsy was conducted to determine the cause of death. At the same time, samples were taken for laboratory tests to detect toxic substances and heavy metals. However, the result of the autopsy was inconclusive as to the cause of death (due to advanced sepsis), while according to the results of the tests, elevated levels of mercury were detected in various concentrations.

After additional – clarifying forensic and toxicological examination reports were ordered, a house search was carried out in the apartment where the 60 year old man lived, together with his family, in the context of which a laptop computer and five mobile phone devices were seized, which were sent for laboratory tests. Among the findings of the house search were small quantities and drug paraphernalia, which appeared to belong to a family member, as well as two shotguns belonging to the deceased, but without following the legal procedure of handing them over to the competent authority. The 50-year-old wife of the deceased was arrested both for the weapons and for the quantity of drugs and a case was filed against her, which was referred to the court of law.

What the 50-year-old woman testified in a preliminary investigation about the thermometers

After her husband’s death, the 50-year-old woman, when questioned by police officers, partially recanted what she had initially testified and reportedly admitted that she herself had bought at least six mercury thermometers from a pharmacy in Panorama initially, one of which she handed over to her husband while he was being treated at the ‘Papanikolaou’ hospital, and the rest she claimed to have sent by parcel to her sister in Poland.

After a few days she went to a pharmacy in Perea, buying another twelve mercury thermometers, one of which she gave to her husband, while the rest she claimed that she again sent by parcel to Poland.

She also allegedly admitted that in addition to the thermometers, she herself transported to the hospital two bags of antipsychotic drugs, including TAVOR. The purchases and deliveries of the thermometers to her husband took place prior to the detection of mercury in the patient’s right ear canal.

The defendant denied to police officers that she administered drugs and mercury to her husband.

The investigation and contradictions

From the investigation conducted by the experienced police officers of the Crimes against Life Department, the purchase of four thermometers on July 4, 2018 and four thermometers and a syringe two days later from a pharmacy in Panorama Thessaloniki was discerned. In addition, it was discovered that another fifteen mercury thermometers had been purchased in the summer of 2018 from a pharmacy in Perea.

Having this evidence in their hands, the police officers considered that the 50-year-old woman’s claims had logical gaps as she fell into contradictions, since the patient himself when examined by the police officers had stated that he did not have any thermometer and pharmaceutical formulation. Moreover, it took two and a half years after the 50-year-old’s death for the accused to report to the police about the mercury thermometers, even though she knew about the discovery of mercury in her husband.

According to information, another piece of evidence collected by the police officers and included in the case file came from the investigation conducted through the E.O.P.Y.Y., for the defendant’s prescriptions, as it was found that, in the summer of 2018, the 50-year-old woman visited a private general practitioner in Perea twice and was prescribed three packs of anxiolytic medication and one pack of antipsychotic medication. These drugs belong to the category of psychotropic substances and the prescriptions were filled at a pharmacy in Perea.

And the dates of supply of the drugs took place during the period of the 60-year-old’s hospitalization and are the only prescriptions of the accused for the years 2017-18.

It is noted that the first pharmaceutical formulation was not identified in an examination of the deceased, while the second formulation was prescribed, in the past, repeatedly to the deceased and was among the medications found in his closet on the day his belongings were searched by officers. This particular active substance was detected in his urine sample on July 14, 2018 (the day on which his lorazepam levels were elevated), without having been administered by hospital staff.

The case “went in” and “came out” after a phone call

Although police officers had handed over the preliminary investigation material to the Thessaloniki Prosecutor’s Office in July 2021, after its evaluation the case was initially filed. However, in June 2023, following a telephone complaint, new evidence was provided regarding the defendant’s involvement in the death of her husband, which was communicated to the Thessaloniki Prosecutor’s Office.

After the case was withdrawn from the file of the Prosecutor’s Office, the additional Preliminary Examination was conducted, pursuant to the order of the Prosecutor of Thessaloniki District Court, the case file was completed and submitted to the competent authorities in December 2023.