Sam Amico
A Massachusetts man who was hit and killed while crossing the street over the weekend had “savagely” killed his wife at their Chelmsford home in 1987, police said, via Boston 25.
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Basil Bletsis, 74, confessed to killing his wife, Panagiota Bletsis, who was 28 at the time, at their North Chelmsford home in 1987, Attleboro Police Chief Kyle Heagney said. Bletsis was 37 at the time of his wife’s murder.
Boston 25 went on the report the following:
“The outcome of the murder case and whether he served any prison time were unclear Tuesday.
“Basil Bletsis was fatally struck by a car while crossing Pleasant Street in Attleboro at around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, police said. He was taken by ambulance to Sturdy Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police said no charges have been filed against the driver, who immediately stopped and cooperated with authorities.
“According to a Sept. 6, 1987 news article from the Daily News in New York, the ‘savagely beaten body’ of Panagiota Bletsis, a young mother of two, was found on the night of Sept. 5, 1987, in the trunk of a car at Kennedy International Airport.”
The Daily News story went on to report that “the murder case started in her Massachusetts bedroom and ended with her husband’s arrest in California.”
“Acting on a call from Massachusetts police, Port Authority cops hammered open the trunk of a silver-gray four-door Mitsubishi sedan around 6:30 p.m. and found the nightgown-clad body of Panagiota Bletsis, 29, of North Chelmsford, Mass.,” the newspaper article states. “Severely beaten on the head, the woman was wrapped in a blanket, her hands and neck bound.”
It is unclear if the children were home at the time of her death.
Boston 25 added:
Basil Bletsis allegedly told his brother of the killing, the newspaper article states. The brother phoned relatives in Chelmsford, who in turn called local police, investigators said at the time. He then turned himself in to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
Bletsis was arrested by sheriff’s detectives on a murder warrant issued by Massachusetts authorities and was in custody in the Santa Barbara County Jail, according to a Sept. 6, 1987, United Press International article.
According to WJAR, those who most recently lived under the same roof as Basil Bletsis at a rest home on Pleasant Street in Attleboro said his past was never really mentioned.
