The city of Drama is gripped by profound grief following a tragic femicide and suicide. A 51-year-old police officer killed his 45-year-old estranged wife — also a police officer — inside their home before taking his own life with his service weapon.
A Silence That Cost a Life
While two families mourn the loss of both the victim and her killer, questions are mounting about the psychological state of the perpetrator. According to reports, the officer had privately consulted a military psychologist due to severe anxiety over his separation from his wife. The psychologist referred him to a psychiatrist, who prescribed medication but concluded there was no immediate cause for concern.
Due to medical confidentiality, the Hellenic Police were never informed — meaning the officer retained access to his service firearm.
Escalating Threats and Unheeded Warnings
Relatives say the victim endured years of psychological suffocation and extreme jealousy. The situation deteriorated dangerously around two weeks before the killing, when the officer broke into the apartment where his wife now lived alone and threatened her at gunpoint — his weapon loaded.
Despite her terror — and despite advice from her own psychologist to change the locks — she chose not to file an official complaint or report the incident to her police unit, likely in an effort to protect her husband’s career and, above all, their two children.
“She told me there were threats. Thomas had moved out recently. I told her to go to the police. She said she’d already reported the threats to her service. I urged her to change the locks — we’re talking about serious circumstances. She couldn’t bear it anymore,” her psychologist told Live News.
No Legal Grounds — But a Systemic Gap?
The police emphasize that, as both officers had passed mandatory psychometric evaluations and no formal domestic violence complaint had been lodged, there was no legal basis to revoke the officer’s firearm.
This has raised urgent questions: Could this femicide have been prevented if someone had broken their silence — if the risk posed by the officer had been assessed earlier and more seriously?
New Revelations: A Key Psychologist’s Decision
According to new information revealed by police journalist Vasilis Lampropoulos on Live News, a crucial detail involves a psychologist formally employed by the Hellenic Police since June 2024. Both the perpetrator — and possibly the victim — had visited him at his private practice in Komotini.
Though he diagnosed the officer with panic disorder and referred him for strong pharmacological treatment, the psychologist opted to keep the case strictly confidential — and reportedly fee-based — rather than notify the officer’s unit. That decision proved pivotal: such a report would have triggered internal procedures to temporarily remove his service weapon.