Pathological jealousy

One of the most common motives for homicide is jealousy. Every year, over 100 women die at the hands of their partners. One of these women was 18-year-old student Zoe Frantzis. She fell victim to her pathologically jealous husband, who not only strangled his beloved wife Zoe, but also brutally dismembered her body into 11 pieces and disfigured her head beyond recognition. The murder is considered one of the most brutal in Greek criminal history. On the morning of June 25, 1987, 50-year-old collector K. Vuzilas was searching through trash cans for old stamps in the Kato Patissia district of Athens when he found human remains in a bag. Vuzilas immediately called the police. They discovered a total of 11 body parts belonging to a young woman. However, the head was missing, making identification impossible. Fortunately, a butcher’s receipt was found in a trouser pocket. This led the police to a specific area where the newlywed Frantzis couple lived. The couple had recently separated and the young wife had moved out. The description of the wife matched the body, so the police questioned the young husband, Panagiotis. He confessed that he had dismembered his wife’s body after a tragic accident. He had not known what else to do. He told the police that he had met Zoe in October 1985 in a café on Koliatsou Square, where he occasionally helped out in his father’s clothing store. Zoe’s school was located there. For the young man, who was studying at the Athens University of Economics and Business, it was love at first sight. For Zoe, a beautiful girl whose father was a retired tax official, he left his girlfriend of five years. He began a stormy relationship with Zoe, who was only 16 years old. But Panagiotis’ jealousy led to repeated violent arguments between the lovers. Panagiotis was obsessed with Zoe, even following her on family vacations to the Greek port city of Nafpaktos. The couple broke up again and again, only to reconcile, until they finally got married in December 1986. But their young happiness was repeatedly overshadowed by Panagiotis’ jealousy, which grew steadily like a cancer. It was June 24, 1987, when the couple went out to a restaurant in Fokionos Negri with a married couple who were friends of theirs. As so often, Panagiotis’ jealousy had led to an argument, so the couple returned to their apartment. While Panagiotis parked the car, Zoe had already returned to the apartment. When Panagiotis arrived, Zoe had locked the door. She only let Panagiotis into the apartment after an hour. This was followed by passionate make-up sex. But shortly afterwards, another argument broke out, which, according to Panagiotis, ended in a tragic accident. During the physical altercation, Zoe hit her head on the edge of the bed and lay on the floor. When Panagiotis could no longer feel her pulse, he panicked. He dragged the body into the bathroom, where he laid it in the bathtub. Then he began to dismember the body into 11 pieces with his Cretan pocket knife, a holiday souvenir, and a hammer. It took him over three hours to dismember Zoe’s body. He had to take several breaks because he kept vomiting. He then put the body parts in bags, which he disposed of in trash cans in Kato Patissia. Afterwards, he told his friends and acquaintances, as well as Zoe’s parents, that she had left him. But there was a catch to this version of events. The coroners found strangulation marks on Zoe’s neck, as well as defensive wounds that indicated Zoe had put up a fierce fight. Zoe had clearly been strangled. In addition, Zoe’s head had been discovered in a trash can not far from the church of Agios Panteleimonas. It had been horribly disfigured to make identification impossible. According to the medical examiner, her eyes had been gouged out and her nose, hair, and ears had been cut off. In September 1988, the trial of Panagiotis Frantzis for the murder of his wife Zoe began. Panagiotis maintained his innocence until the end of the trial. Zoe’s murder was a godsend for the media, which repeatedly published photos of the gruesomely disfigured body parts, which are still circulating on the internet today. Panagiotis was sentenced to life imprisonment and applied for parole three times, but the judicial council responsible rejected his application each time. In October 2005, Panagiotis Frantzis was released from Agia Chania prison after 18 years of imprisonment. It is not known how he is doing today.