Security camera footage has raised new questions about the final moments of a 30-year-old Ethiopian woman who fell to her death inside a central Athens apartment building, as police continue to question the Italian tourist who removed her from his rented flat shortly before she died.
Surveillance footage from the building's corridors shows the woman leaving a third-floor apartment and running upstairs to the fourth floor rather than exiting to the street — a route that required no security code.
She is seen using a piece of iron door frame to smash a wire-reinforced glass window, an act investigators believe accounts for severe lacerations found on her body and heavy bloodstains on the broken glass. She then fell into the building's internal courtyard.
The 45-year-old Italian man, who was on the last day of a three-day rental, appears on footage emerging from the apartment only after the woman fell. He called emergency services. Speaking through a translator during police interrogation, he said the two had argued because she refused to leave and that he had physically removed her from the premises.
Investigators say they cannot yet explain why the woman fled upward rather than toward the street exit. Toxicology results are pending and are expected to clarify whether narcotics or a mental health episode may have been factors.
The local Ethiopian community is working to formally identify the victim and locate her family. Authorities have not ruled out any scenario and say the investigation remains open.