Dr. Suzanne Eaton, (pictured), was found dead on Monday night at the bottom of a cave
Crucial evidence found in a Nazi bunker where the body of an American biologist was dumped on the Greek island of Crete may lead to her killer being caught, authorities said.
Dr. Suzanne Eaton was found dead on Monday night at the bottom of a cave which was used by Nazis to store ammunition during the second World War near Cania.
A police source told ABC News that they believe evidence found at the scene could determine on the identity of the killer.
However they did not give any information on what was found or provide further detail.
The source said that at around people from the area were questioned and investigators took DNA samples from them.
The 59-year-old mother-of-two was originally from California and lived in Germany with her husband, a British scientist. She vanished on July 2 at some point in the afternoon and was due to attend a conference but failed to show up.
Her family believe she went out running, as the only thing item from her hotel room were her running shoes.
Officials are working on the theory that the murderer who suffocated, stabbed and sliced off Eaton’s ear before dumping her body, had their cell phone with them when she was killed.
A police source told ABC News that they believe evidence found at the scene determine on the identity of the killer. Pieces of Eaton’s clothing are shown above
Dr Eaton’s body landed face down, around 200 feet inside the labyrinth of passages that pass through this cave (pictured)
Local villagers said they believed only somebody from the area would have known about the cave, which is off a dust track and then involves a trek through rugged woodland and is not visible easily to the naked eye or from the road
ABC reported that cops have asked for data records from mobile phone companies that could possibly identify the suspect who left her body in the bunker.
The police source claimed that results from the DNA tests from the crime scene are expected will be available over the next few days.
Investigators claim they are particularly interested in men who are muscular and could overpower an individual. Eaton liked to run and held a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, according to police.
Coroner Antonis Papadomanolakis told Greece’s ANT1 News that ‘something complicated happened’ during Eaton’s death.
Police are trying to establish whether the killer’s phone signal was picked up by cell phone towers close to the remote olive fields in Chania where her body was found on Monday.
Crucially, they have pin-pointed a two-hour period on the night of the murder when several phone signals were picked up in an area they believe would have been known to the killer and few from outside the area.
Members of a search and rescue team of the fire brigade prepare to retrieve the body of a woman found near the village of Kolimpari on the island of Crete
Rescue teams examine maps of the area in an incident room, they have already interviewed a number of witnesses
It was also revealed that Eaton was murdered on the same day she went missing and fought for her life as DNA was found under her fingernails, and police said her body will be tested for signs of rape.
The killer dumped the body of Eaton, who was still dressed in her running gear, down a shaft, an approximate 40-foot drop.
Police believe the killer may not have entered the cave itself, which is accessible from another entrance and merely dropped the corpse through a shaft, which was covered by a wooden pallet, before driving away.
Her body landed face down, around 200 feet inside the labyrinth of passages that pass through the cave.
The shaft, due to its darkness and being 40 feet beneath the earth, has cold air running through it and this may have helped preserve DNA from the killer.
Eaton was originally from California and lived in Germany with her husband, a British scientist. The mother-of-two vanished on July 2
Eaton, a California native who lived in Germany, was murdered on the same day she went missing and fought for her life with DNA found under her fingernails, as her body will be tested for signs of rape
Police and forensic officers have carried out a thorough examination of the cave, close to Xamoudochori and on Thursday their discarded plastic gloves and other debris littered the opening to the cave, which is partially blocked by a fallen tree and accessible only on all fours.
Local villagers said they believed only somebody from the area would have known about the cave, which is off a dust track and then involves a trek through rugged woodland and is not visible easily to the naked eye or from the road.
Relatives previously guessed that she may have died as a result of heat exposure or exhaustion and that she might have taken shelter in the cave during a run in the stifling afternoon heat.
What actually happened was far more sinister, local authorities say.
Eaton – who was a research leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany – was on the trip to attend a conference.
Family previously said they believe she may have became overheated in the 88F temperatures and taken shelter where she suffered a medical emergency while out running.
The only items missing from where she was staying were her running shoes. Her passport and wallet were still in her hotel room.