The 32-year-old Algerian woman accused of causing the death of her three-year-old toddler daughter has been remanded in custody following a lengthy five-hour testimony. The toddler’s body was found in the sea at Paleo Faliro, Athens, sparking national outrage and a police investigation that has since expanded to include the suspect’s past, family situation, and mental state.
The mother, who denies the murder charges, claims the toddler- named Jenna- was already dead due to an accidental injury at home when she took her to the sea. She described a moment of panic after allegedly finding the child convulsing in the bathroom. “She asked for water, and when I returned from the kitchen, I found her on the floor, shaking. I held her and she came around, but later collapsed again. I thought she was dead. I panicked and went to the sea,” she told authorities.
However, during her arrest, she had reportedly admitted the child was still warm and had a heartbeat. She now claims Jenna slipped from her arms while in the sea and drowned. The official forensic report suggests the child was alive when she entered the water- small amounts of water and sand were found in her lungs.
Authorities are also examining the woman’s past. She had previously faced allegations of child neglect, with one case in 2022 involving her two-year-old son crying alone outside the apartment. She was arrested but released by the prosecutor’s order. More recently, complaints were made about one of her children crying in the rooftop flat (an unauthorised rooftop structure) where they lived.
The woman and her children had been living in Greece illegally after their asylum applications were rejected. Despite this, she re-applied in April 2025- just weeks before the incident. A deportation order had been issued for her.
She also revealed she had suffered domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, a 43-year-old Algerian-Syrian man with a criminal record for weapons violations, narcotics, robbery, and domestic violence. He remains at large.
Investigators are combing through the apartment the family lived in, located on the 8th floor of a block in Kato Patissia, seeking evidence of the child’s injury and overall living conditions. DNA samples have been collected to confirm the child’s identity, and her other children have been placed temporarily in the Agia Sofia children’s hospital.
A series of surveillance videos helped police piece together the mother’s movements. One clip shows her leaving her home with the two other children and a stroller- believed to contain the injured toddler. Another shows her shopping at a kiosk, the child unresponsive in the stroller. The final footage places her at the beach near 2am, moments before she abandoned the child in the sea and walked away.
Her decision to avoid a hospital, she says, was driven by fear of arrest and deportation. Prosecutors are now exploring the full extent of her accountability in the toddler death in Paleo Faliro and whether the actions were a result of panic, negligence, or something far more deliberate.
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