The murderer is not always the gardener

One of the most shocking crimes in Greek criminal history is the massacre of the Chrysafidis family in 1991, which remains a mystery to this day. But first things first. On the evening of June 24, 1991, Alexandros Makridis, the nephew of 49-year-old Michalis Chrysafidis, the head of a family of four, set off for his villa in the Athens suburb of Ekalis, the Beverly Hills of the super-rich. He had been unable to reach the family for days. When he arrived at the villa, he met a neighbor and Michalis’ sales manager, who were also concerned about the family. There was only a handwritten note on the front door saying that the family was on vacation and would not return until the end of June. This was extremely strange, so the nephew called a locksmith to open the front door. When they entered the villa, everything was quiet. They searched all the rooms until they made a gruesome discovery in the basement. Spread across three rooms, they found all four family members, who had been brutally murdered. They immediately called the police. The autopsy revealed that the two teenage boys had been murdered first. Sixteen-year-old Michalis-Dimitris, who was found dead, gagged and tied to a chair, had first been beaten with a sledgehammer on June 20. All his bones were broken before he was killed. Then his 18-year-old brother George, who had also been gagged and tied up, was killed with an axe. A day later, their father Michalis was tortured and murdered. It was not until June 23 that Michalis’ British wife Liz was killed. She had not only witnessed the murder of her children and husband, but had also been raped. The 28-year-old Thai butler Praser Sertuansa, who had been working for the family since 1989, quickly came under suspicion. On June 18, 1991, he had called his boss’s company and said that the family was away and would not return to Greece until the end of June. He had told the gardener the same thing. Unfortunately, the Thai butler could no longer be questioned because he had flown to Bangkok on June 21 with his wife Ouazitan, whom he had married two months earlier, his mother, and his sister because his father was seriously ill. Since then, all traces of the butler and his family have been lost, and he remains one of the most wanted people on Interpol’s list to this day. The police assumed that the butler either knew the killers and had let them into the house, or that he himself had committed the first three murders. He could not have committed the murder of Michalis’ wife, as she was still alive when he was already on the plane to Bangkok. There were no signs of a break-in, and nothing was missing from the safe except cash. Strangely, a handwritten will was found. According to this, the entire estate would go to the nephew if all family members died. The butler could certainly have shed light on the matter, but he had since disappeared without a trace. Although the Thai police traveled to Athens in 1993 and 1994, they were unable to reach an agreement with the Greek police. Since there are no extradition agreements between Greece and Thailand, the search for the butler proved extremely difficult. To this day, the cruel execution of the wealthy Chrysafidis family has not been solved. Why did the wife die last, after being forced to watch the murder of her loved ones for days? Was there a personal motive behind it? What was the deal with the will? Was the nephew involved? Questions upon questions that may or may not be answered one day, who knows.