Galery

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When, at noon on 15 August, passersby saw the fire that had started near the dump of Astros, Kinouria municipality, they were unaware of the tragedy that would later be disclosed.

The firefighters who arrived on the scene found the burnt body of a young man in the back of a burning car. The body was disjointed. Several hours later the victim's father confessed to killing his own child.

The crime has shocked the small closed society of Astros. Family neighbours are speaking about the frequent quarrels that they heard between son Yiannis Barlas and his parents.

The 39-year-old man lived in Athens and worked at a restaurant as a food supplier. The crisis had forced him to return to his home area and to the house of his parents. There, however, he started to constantly ask them for money which often gave rise to furious quarrels, as stated by the neighbours. Some argue that, at Easter, the son had even raised his hand against his mother. "This, of course, does not justify his brutal murder," they admit to "Ethnos" newspaper.

As soon as the burnt body was found, the policemen from Tripoli police station initiated an investigation to identify the perpetrators of the crime. All clues led to the victim's family, so they called his parents to testify. During the questioning, Giorgos Barlas, aged 75, broke down. He made a full confession and described the events in detail, saying that he had committed the crime due to family disputes.

In his words, the father had  had another quarrel with his 39-year-old son in the yard of their home at noon on 15 August. After an exchange of sharp words, the father took his legally-owned hunting rifle and shot three times his son, who fell dead.

According to the police, the father with the help of his 71-year-old brother, had put the body in the car afterwards, removed the car camera and set off to a desolate area, where they had set fire to the car to cover up their tracks and the clues.

The two brothers left the place with the help of the victim’s son-in-law, aged 53, who drove them home. Meanwhile, the mother of the murdered man, aged 67, and his aunt, aged 70, had cleaned up the yard so as not to leave any traces of the murder.

The father was arrested and charged with murder, arson, false bearing of, and violation of the law on, weapons. The victim’s mother, aged 67, the brother of the victim's father, aged 71 and his wife, aged 70 as well as the husband of the victim’s sister, aged 53, were arrested for participation in the crime.

The investigation discovered and seized the murder weapon, one fired cartridge, clothes with traces of blood and the registration plates of the burnt car buried in the garden of the father. The detainees were taken to the coroner in Nafplio.