“Orestes”, the doctor, the 35-year-old, the photographer Νί Nikos Metaxas. He is not the man with a thousand faces, but a man who lived among us, worked, was a father and a husband, a friend, a colleague. Nothing different, that is, from the neighbor to whom we say good morning in the morning. He is the officer above all suspicion, who when the well in the Mitserou mine washed away the lifeless body of a woman, asked for pen and paper “because he was tired” and began to write. He wrote ten whole pages, with his almost complacent description, of how he took seven lives, stating where he threw the bodies of women and children. His path remains in the dark until the time when his daily routine became the hunting of victims in the anonymous streets of the internet.
The fake news
Not that the nationality of a person who confesses a series of murders with incredible naturalness is very important, but after the first shock created by the revelation that it is “ours”, the racist misinformation industry came into operation. “He is not a Cypriot, he is a Bulgarian, because our race.”. There was no shortage of the most sought-after nonsense about the DNA allegedly carried by the Bulgarians, who are “barbarians” and everything else imaginable. Well, for all of them, we have no good news. “Orestes” is Greek and with a parliament. Everyone should know that, condition for admission to the military schools of Greece, is the Greek origin. “The genus must be Greek”, is mentioned in the relevant regulation, and this means to have a Greek father or mother, to have Greek citizenship or to have citizenship of another state, as long as his Greek origin is proven.
Nikos Metaxas is a graduate of the Military School of Guards and therefore his Greek origin is confirmed. The rumors of the lying industry – which are not only innocent – even stated that he is adopted and therefore the “Bulgarian DNA” is allegedly responsible for his actions!
Left or right?
And after we have clarified the issues of nationality, let us move on to the other issue that turned “Orestes” into an object of political controversy. Whether he is left-wing or far-right αυτό This might not even have been an issue if all the victims were not foreign women and if the only “party” that did not bother to make at least one statement, with which to regrets their unjust loss, it was not ELAM. ELAM, which is moved by handing out a jacket of 10 euros “only for the Greek children” who are cold, but does not care about five women and two children who are looking for them in wells and lakes, since they are not “Greek girls”.
The family of Nikos Metaxas has leftist origins. From what has become known, his grandfather was a salaried employee of PEO and community leader of the Strovolos 2 Settlement with AKEL. His relationship with the Left, during the era of existing socialism in the USSR and Eastern Europe, helped Orestes' father, also a member of AKEL, secure a scholarship to study in Bulgaria. All the people who knew both the grandfather and the father of the alleged perpetrator, spoke in the best words about their morals, kindness and honesty. In Bulgaria, during his studies, he met the woman who became his wife and together they acquired Nikos and another girl who currently works in the State Institution Service. Friends and acquaintances of the family reported that Nikos Metaxas was born in Bulgaria and then came to Cyprus with his parents. His first years were not easy, as his Greek was not good and this created problems in his relationships with his classmates at school. The father worked in the EAC, but at some point the marriage was dissolved and Nikos Metaxas stayed with his father. The same sources who spoke to “P”, reported that Nikos Metaxas grew up in a warm family environment, enjoying the affection of his father's second wife.
His four-year absence from Cyprus to study at the Evelpidon School seems to have played a role in shaping a political perspective that was far from that of the family. To avoid misunderstandings, this shift is not the responsibility of the BCC, which provides military and academic training only, but of the friendly relations with some of its students. This shift also brought him into conflict with his father, with the result that their relationship cooled down.
Some rushed to take political advantage of the presence of Nikos Metaxas, in his capacity as a photographer at the April 17 event at the Dikomo '74 association in honor of D. Christofias. However, Metaxas, originally from Dikomo and related to the Christofias family, was invited to photograph the event by a friend of his, who obviously knew absolutely nothing about the dark secrets of “Orestes”. However, in no case did information or indications emerge about his political preferences, as he comfortably undertook photographs of other events, while his nickname “Orestis-Apoel” also served as a counterweight to his family's family political tradition. So his interests were probably not political, as he showed a passion for photography by taking part in group exhibitions and doing photoshop seminars, thus being in contact with hundreds of people in the industry, among whom he was highly regarded for his talent. A member of the “Orestes” family, after the revelations, he is locked in the house because he does not have the power to manage what is happening. He hopes that “Orestes” will be punished as he deserves, and not only by justice, but above all by his conscience; if anyone can talk about such things.
Husband and father
What really causes horror is the fact that Nikos Metaxas was married and the father of two children. Qualities that make his already horrific crimes with women – mothers and children victims even more disgusting. For reasons that do not concern anyone, his marriage led to separation and divorce at the initiative of his ex-wife, who is a completely decent woman. Nikos Metaxas, recounting to the investigators his crimes, remembered that he is also a father and asked for the protection of his children, which he put in the position that no child would want to be found. His violent behavior was recorded by his wife complaining to the Police, but no one could have imagined that the phrase “you do not know what I am capable of doing” could have meant so much.
The dark side
What we may never know is what he hides in his mind. The master of the National Guard, in the morning wore the uniform with the three polished silver stars on his shoulders, in the afternoon he became the sensitive photographer-artist Nikos Metaxas and in the evening as “Orestes” he distributed death to the victims who had methodically trapped him in the web.
What it looks like afterwards is that he used the photographer's art to reach out to other would-be victims, judging by interviews with agents who confessed to approaching them to bring him in contact with models from Asian countries.
With the confession of seven murders, he may have thought that he had cleared and they would leave him alone to organize his life in prison, which will close as a redemption for the society the stigma that flooded the island with shame. “Got tired. I want to go to jail. Give me paper and a pen to write them all… “. With these words he wanted to put his signature on seven deaths. Perhaps his confession was the convenient way out of the impasse to which the elements that had tightened the strap around his neck had brought him. Except that this leash was not like his own lock that became a deadly weapon. The ease of detecting murder is not convincing. On the contrary, it raises reasonable suspicions that the secrets may be more than what “Orestes” has written as true facts. Investigators believe that a man who commits murder does not start by strangling a mother and a child, as the first murders he confessed to were those of a 36-year-old mother and her 8-year-old daughter from Romania in September 2016. What is certain is that he did not we're done with him.
Early to be judged as a serial killer
Psychiatrist Dimitris Souras, who has been called many times in Greece to be involved and assist in many high-profile cases of serious crimes, is the director of the Psychiatric Clinic of the “Metropolitan” Hospital and the psychiatrist in charge of the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center. We talked to him about the case of “Orestes” based on what he knows and has been revealed publicly.
The profile is endangered
He noted that “it is a bit dangerous at the moment to sketch the profile of a serial killer who kills uncontrollably, without being able to justify why he did all this. “The murder of the two children makes a difference, if we are talking about a serial killer, since they have nothing to do with complete women and there can be no excuse for killing them so that they do not recognize him.”
Mr. Souras also said that if we now try to socially and psychologically sketch the personality of this man, we will make a huge mistake, “because the elements of his personality that are visible so far are not clear.” At first sight, according to Mr. Souras, “an antisocial personality disorder is evident. Violent man who kills, who when he decided to speak, spoke without regret at all and said, what he thought he had to say, to help or disorient the investigation, as he perceived the situation. All these facts, and others that will arise, should be analyzed to give us the answers we need. But this will only be done by those who diligently deal with it. “
Obsessions to study
The well-known psychiatrist pointed out that there seem to be obsessions, such as the reference to strangulation at the time of sexual intercourse. That, he said, may not be true. If it is true that when he did it for the first time he liked it and repeated it, then the obsessive part is added to the already existing antisocial disorder of his personality. Sexual perversion is also added. From these data, according to D. Souras, the conclusion of the characterization of the suspect as a serial killer does not emerge.
Psychiatrist and investigator
D. Souras believes that a psychiatrist can unlock a person's personality and learn truths. This, he emphasizes, can be done through a specific discussion, which psychiatrists know how to do so that they can learn “what is really going on in his personality and psyche. Also, everything he tells us, in the way we will extract them, will be the only truths “. According to Mr. Souras, the practice of interrogation is different and the discussion with a psychiatrist is different, because “the psychiatrist creates such conditions that one feels the need to speak”. The doctor, as he says, listens after asking the appropriate key questions.
The pretense
D. Souras is not convinced that “Orestes” has told the whole truth, but this is an issue that will become apparent in the course of events. In the psychiatric examination, as he points out, everything plays a role, such as the parents, the environment in which he grew up, how he was formed, his experiences, his profession, his sex life… Behind the normal character of a person, concludes Mr. Souras, “There is always another word called pretense. In the case of this man, one cannot say today whether he is pretending or not. “
