Police: Man killed in Attleboro crash had confessed to bloody killing of wife in Chelmsford in 1987

An Attleboro man who was struck and killed while crossing the street over the weekend had “savagely” killed his wife at their Chelmsford home in 1987 in a case that spanned several states, according to police and newspaper reports.

Basil Bletsis, 74, confessed to killing his wife, 28-year-old Panagiota Bletsis, at their North Chelmsford home in 1987, Attleboro Police Chief Kyle Heagney confirmed. He was 37 at the time of her murder.

Her body was found in the trunk of his car at Kennedy International Airport in New York on Sept. 5, 1987, according to newspaper reports. Basil Bletsis later turned himself in to California authorities.

The outcome of the murder case and whether he served any prison time were unclear Tuesday.

Basil Bletsis was fatally struck by a car while crossing Pleasant Street in Attleboro at around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, police said. He was taken by ambulance to Sturdy Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police said no charges have been filed against the driver, who immediately stopped and cooperated with authorities.

According to a Sept. 6, 1987 news article from the Daily News in New York, the “savagely beaten body” of Panagiota Bletsis, a young mother of two, was found on the night of Sept. 5, 1987, in the trunk of a car at Kennedy International Airport.

“The murder case started in her Massachusetts bedroom and ended with her husband’s arrest in California,” the Daily News article states.

“Acting on a call from Massachusetts police, Port Authority cops hammered open the trunk of a silver-gray four-door Mitsubishi sedan around 6:30 p.m. and found the nightgown-clad body of Panagiota Bletsis, 29, of North Chelmsford, Mass.,” the newspaper article states. “Severely beaten on the head, the woman was wrapped in a blanket, her hands and neck bound.”

It was unclear whether the children were at home when she was killed, the article states. Investigators said at the time that Chelmsford Police officers “found the Bletsis bedroom in disarray and splattered with blood. A broken chair leg was found, and a phone cord had been torn from the wall,” the newspaper article states.

The family had lived “in a mixed ‘blue-collar, white-shirt’ neighborhood of mostly single-family Victorian cottages,” the newspaper article states, citing information from investigators at the time.

Authorities said at the time that Basil Bletsis left Chelmsford sometime before 4 a.m. overnight in the car, arriving at Kennedy International Airport shortly before 8 a.m., the newspaper article states. He booked a United Airlines flight to Los Angeles. Once there, he took a second plane to Santa Barbara to see his brother.

Basil Bletsis allegedly told his brother of the killing, the newspaper article states. The brother phoned relatives in Chelmsford, who in turn called local police, investigators said at the time. He then turned himself in to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

Bletsis was arrested by sheriff’s detectives on a murder warrant issued by Massachusetts authorities and was in custody in the Santa Barbara County Jail, according to a Sept. 6, 1987, United Press International article.

According to WJAR, those who most recently lived under the same roof as Basil Bletsis at a rest home on Pleasant Street in Attleboro said his past was never really mentioned.

“He was very quiet and smiled a lot and he had dimples,” Brenda Cuellar, a resident of the rest home, told the news station.

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