For 22 days, he tried to erase all traces of himself. When the 43-year-old man from North Macedonia saw the police net closing in, he vanished without a trace—and even attempted to implicate the victim’s own brother in the murder of Stavroula Levendaki.
A Brutal Crime in Chania
The horrific killing, committed in Chania on Crete, revealed a remorseless individual who continued beating the 45-year-old woman as she lay bleeding and dying—refusing to stop until she drew her last breath.
At 3:00 p.m. on May 29, Levendaki entered the apartment she had rented from the foreign national in a residential area of Chania. Roughly one hour later—and after three successive attempts to kill her—the suspect fatally assaulted her. Her body remained in a pool of blood for approximately 13 hours before being discovered.
His Account: A Cynical Narrative
In his initial statements to investigators, the suspect described—according to his own claims—how the altercation began with the apartment’s owner. “In a fit of rage, she grabbed a full wine bottle and tried to hit me,” he claimed. “I grabbed it to stop her, and our feet got tangled. She fell, hitting her head on the floor—right next to her right ear.”
He went on: “I saw blood running from her right ear onto the tiles. She started screaming, and I lost control—I hit her on the head with the bottle I’d taken from her… Then I wrapped a cloth twice around her head, covering her mouth. She tried to pull it off with her hands. I tightened it again—and suddenly, she collapsed unconscious. She stopped moving entirely. I thought, ‘Okay, it’s over.’”
Seconds later, he realized she was still alive. Instead of seeking help, he launched a second attack.
“After one or two minutes, she woke up and screamed for help. Still dazed, I returned to the bedroom—and brought a kitchen knife I’d taken from a drawer. She was lying sideways on the floor, shouting. I approached and stabbed her twice near the heart… She stopped screaming. I went to the kitchen, washed the knife with dish soap and vinegar—and thought, ‘It’s done. She’s gone. Now I can calm down.’”
But she continued breathing—and crying out for help.
With no sign of pity, the suspect then struck her twice—possibly a third time—with a wooden log to the head. “She started screaming again—‘Help! Help! Can anyone hear me?’ I grabbed a piece of wood and went back into the bedroom, where Stavroula was lying in blood. I hit her on the head twice for sure. A third time? I don’t remember.”