'Something Complicated' Happened During Professor's Murder

Police say they have evidence that could identify killer of Suzanne Eaton
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 15, 2019 1:49 AM CDT
'Crucial Evidence' Could Identify Killer of US Professor
This undated photo provided by her family shows Suzanne Eaton, a 59-year-old molecular biologist.   (AP Photo)

Police in Crete may be closing in on the killer of American professor Suzanne Eaton, who was found dead in a World War II bunker on the Greek island last week. A high-level police source tells ABC that the murderer could be identified by some "crucial evidence" left behind in the bunker. The source did not elaborate on the nature of the evidence, but said the 59-year-old had defensive wounds that indicated she fought for her life against an attacker armed with a knife. The cause of death was suffocation, according to Coroner Antonis Papadomanolakis, but he says "something complicated happened" during her death and it was "not immediate."

Investigators are trying to determine whether Eaton, who was married with two sons, was murdered inside the bunker or her body was moved there after the killing, the BBC reports. ABC's source says police have interviewed at least 10 locals on Crete and took DNA samples from all of them. DNA test results from the crime scene are expected back within days, according to the source, who says investigators are looking for a muscular attacker who would have been able to overpower the physically fit professor, who had a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Eaton, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany who was in Crete for a conference, vanished July 2 after saying she was going for a run. (More Suzanne Eaton stories.)

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