On August 23rd, 2002, residents of Belmont Road in West Green, a quiet residential area in north London’s Haringey borough, noticed a disturbing smell coming from a nearby flat. A concerned neighbor alerted the police, who entered the property and made a grim discovery: the body of sixty-year-old Greek-born Nikolaos Pittakis.
Nikolaos had been dead for up to two weeks. He had been stabbed to death in what appeared to be a violent attack inside his own home.
Public information about Nikolaos Pittakis is extremely sparse. He was born in Greece and had settled in London. At the time of his death, he lived alone in a flat on Belmont Road. No immediate family members were prominently featured in reports, and there are few details about his occupation, social circle, or daily life in the UK.
The discovery was prompted not by reports of violence or missing person concerns, but by the practical reality of decomposition in a residential building during summer. This suggests that Nikolaos may have led a relatively isolated existence, with his absence going unnoticed for some time.
According to available records, the victim died from multiple stab wounds. There has been no public disclosure of the exact number or nature of the injuries, the presence (or absence) of defensive wounds, signs of forced entry, or whether anything was stolen from the flat.
The Metropolitan Police launched a murder investigation. A twenty-one-year-old roofer was charged but cleared at trial in May 2003. In a Freedom of Information response years later, the force confirmed the case as unsolved, with no further public updates emerging.
Crime Immemorial 