For months, Eirini (Irene) Mourtzoukou, 25, wept on Greek talk shows, swearing she had nothing to do with the tragic string of baby deaths associated with her name. She presented herself as a grieving mom, and lashed out at journalists and pathologists who dared suggest otherwise. But behind the crocodile tears was a chilling truth.
In July, the young mother finally confessed to killing four babies, including her own two daughters. Authorities have since locked her inside Greece’s most notorious high-security prison, where she now shares a cell with other women accused of horrific crimes.
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Her confession stunned the nation. Police say Mourtzoukou admitted her first killing happened years earlier, in 2014, when she smothered her 18-month-old sister when she was just 14. The baby’s death was brushed off as “respiratory complications.” Mourtzoukou later told officers she did it to get back at her mother after a fight.
From there, the horror only escalated. In 2021, she confessed to killing her six-month-old godson while babysitting. Then came the deaths of her own daughters, just 19 days old and under two months, in 2022 and 2023. Initial autopsies blamed pneumonia and seizures, but later reviews suggested asphyxiation. Even more chilling? She’s also accused of trying to suffocate a partner with a pillow and may have attempted to kill another baby in 2016, though those claims haven’t been formally added to her charges.
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Through it all, she carried on a public campaign of denial. On TV, she lashed out at experts who said the evidence pointed to smothering. “All they do is label things as murder, criminal activity or asphyxiation,” she told Open TV in December.
When pathologist Dr. Grigoris Leon explained that oxygen deprivation was the cause, she snapped back, “Who are Dr. Leon and Dr. Galenteris to come and tell me, ‘Your child died of asphyxiation?’” One journalist even mocked her live on air: “Well, then who’s supposed to do it… the guy at the local corner shop?”
Her family wasn’t silent either. Her mother publicly claimed Irene had shown “delinquent behaviour” since age 10 and was diagnosed with a “dual personality.” She even said Irene once staged her own kidnapping, as reported by The Sun.
The twisted mother-daughter relationship seems to have been a driving force behind Irene’s shocking confessions. Police say she admitted, “Every time I argued with my mother, I wanted to do harm. She locked my mind. I did it, I regretted it, but it was already too late.”
Now branded a “serial killer” mom, Irene is begging to be sent to a psychiatric facility rather than prison. She is blaming her traumatic childhood and alleged abuse. But for many in Greece, her image as a manipulative liar on TV is burned in memory. When she was escorted to prison, one furious woman screamed at her, “Die in there!”
The case has rocked Greece. It reminds everyone of the earlier conviction of Roula Pispirigou, another mother who denied killing her children on TV before being sentenced to life. Experts say both women may suffer from Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The current question is, how did so many red flags, repeated hospitalizations, suspicious deaths, and alarming behaviour go unchecked for so long?
