A 28-year-old man on the island of Crete was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday more than one year after he confessed to raping and murdering American scientist Suzanne Eaton in July 2019
The man, identified by local media as Ioanis Paraskakis, appeared in a bulletproof police vest at the court in Rethymno where he received his sentence. Eaton’s sister, Julie Broaddus Eaton, was also present.
Paraskakis killed 59-year-old Eaton while she was attending a conference on the island. The scientist had disappeared on July 2, 2019 while going for a hike near Hania. Her body was found six days later in an abandoned underground storage site used during World War II.
Torrey Goad, spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Athens, said the American mission in Greece welcomed the verdict in the “horrific” murder of Eaton.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic and inexcusable loss of life. We again offer our deep condolences to Dr. Eaton’s family and many friends,” Goad wrote in a statement. “We would also like to express our appreciation to Greece’s law enforcement agencies and the Greek judicial authorities for their work in bringing Dr. Eaton’s killer to justice.”
Eaton, from Armonk, New York, was based in Dresden, Germany, where she worked at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.
Featured image credit: Giannis Angelakis/Associated Press
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