For two days he was “running police and firefighters left and right” – the 54-year-old Chania resident researcher Charalambos P., who had managed to deceive the SilverAlert president and the parents of the 33-year-old missing doctor in Crete.
The device he claimed to have in “global exclusivity“, into which he would input genetic material data and locate the missing person’s position via satellites, seemed, with the scientific analysis he used on his victims, exactly what was needed to find the young doctor. However, the machine needed money to operate – quite a lot of money. Nearly 4,000 euros as reported by the missing 33-year-old’s parents and the SilverAlert president.
Doctor disappearance in Crete: How the “researcher” set up his geolocation fraud using “quantum technology”
The money issue came later. First, 54-year-old Charalambos P. requested hair samples from Alexis Tsikopoulos’ parents. The quantum technology he possessed – exclusively worldwide – would handle the rest, he told them during their conversations.
On Monday, the 43-year-old’s supersystem located 33-year-old Alexis in a warehouse. Police rushed there and found a tent and two meaningless objects that apparently didn’t belong to the missing person. On Tuesday, the researcher from the well-known Swiss center he claimed to be a member of raised the alarm, as his geolocation system detected the 33-year-old moving rapidly at Chania port. Police went to the location, found no suspects, searched camera footage, but found no trace of the 33-year-old. Suspicions about what the researcher really wanted began mounting when he demanded money to continue the searches that would guarantee success.
Instead of money, police handcuffed him and on Wednesday brought him before the competent Chania prosecutor. The trusting parents of the 33-year-old doctor fell victim, in their pain, to the 54-year-old who claimed to be a quantum technology specialist. The issue is that for at least two days this man diverted forces from rescue teams and had them running around Chania without having any real leads whatsoever.
“It’s impossible, no such machine exists worldwide. If it existed, there would be wars over which agency and which state would buy the rights“ commented a Ministry of Citizen Protection official meaningfully.
Search operations continue
Meanwhile, searches by police, firefighters and volunteer teams for the 33-year-old doctor continue for the 11th day. The searches have focused on the Apokoronas area, but without any results so far.
Alexis Tsikopoulos’ parents are living a nightmare, hoping their son will return. As had happened in the recent past, when the young doctor at Heraklion’s Venizelio Hospital disappeared for a few days but returned. However, this time his disappearance appears more serious. His car broke down in Chania due to mechanical problems and his traces have been lost since then. While the possibility of criminal activity hasn’t been ruled out, the chances of such an occurrence remain very slim.
