Greek Mother Receives Two Additional Life Sentences for Killing Her Two Daughters

A Greek woman already sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her nine-year-old daughter received two more life sentences on Tuesday for the deaths of her two other children.

Roula Pispirigou, 36, was found guilty by an Athens court of suffocating her infant daughters, Malena and Irida, in 2019 and 2021, in what prosecutors say were desperate attempts to save her troubled marriage.

Pispirigou, a trained nurse from Patras, maintains her innocence and plans to appeal the verdict. Her case initially gained attention in March 2024 when she was convicted of murdering her nine-year-old daughter, Georgina, by poisoning her with ketamine, a powerful anesthetic.

Following that conviction, investigations into the deaths of her two younger daughters were reopened, revealing they too had been asphyxiated, leading to the new charges.

The prosecutor in this latest trial, Vassiliki Dimopoulou, told the court that Pispirigou’s actions showed a methodical and premeditated intent to preserve her marriage. “She killed her children to keep her marriage intact,” Dimopoulou said, emphasizing the calculated nature of the crimes.

Malena and Irida were just three and a half years old and six months old, respectively, when they died. Malena’s death was initially attributed to acute liver failure, while Irida’s was originally recorded as heart failure.

However, after Georgina’s death, further testing revealed the true cause of their deaths: suffocation.

The case drew widespread media attention in Greece, where Pispirigou has been dubbed a “modern-day Medea,” a reference to the tragic figure from Greek mythology who killed her own children after being abandoned by her husband.

Pispirigou’s tragic story has shaken the nation, with many struggling to comprehend how a mother could allegedly commit such horrific acts. The full details of the case continue to unfold as the mother faces the harsh consequences of her actions.