Police: Suspect in Scientist's Murder Hit Her Twice With Car

The 27-year-old has been arrested in connection with Suzanne Eaton's death
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 16, 2019 8:51 AM CDT
Police: Suspect in Scientist's Murder Hit Her Twice With Car
American 59-year-old molecular biologist Suzanne Eaton.   (AP Photo)

The 27-year-old man who had been questioned in the death of an American scientist on the Greek island of Crete has now been arrested, reports the New York Times. The man's name has not been released, but he is said to be the son of a priest who lives with his wife and two children in Maleme, some 10 miles from the town where Suzanne Eaton was staying, Eleni Papathanassiou, a rep for Crete's police department, tells ABC News. "He admitted his guilt and today he will be brought to justice," the head of the Police General Directorate of Crete said Tuesday. Chilling details allegedly shared by the suspect were released by Papathanassiou, who says the man claimed that after seeing Eaton he hit her two times with his car to stop her and then put her in his trunk.

Papathanassiou says the crime was "motivated by sexual satisfaction," and that the man raped her and left her in what ABC News calls "a shelter's ventilation drain." He later "carefully cleaned" his trunk, per Papathanassiou, who adds that Eaton had "many broken ribs and face bones as well as multiple injuries to both hands. Her cause of death has been given as asphyxiation. A "high-level police source" tells ABC News a security camera near the WWII bunker where Eaton's body was found on July 8 recorded footage of the suspect's car. (More Suzanne Eaton stories.)

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