Was the Patriarch Assasinated?

I heard this rumour last week on a nationally broadcast radio program. I googled it and found no stories on the Net. The radio show, Coast-to-Coast AM, was interviewing a priest about some nuttiness or other and he made the claim that the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria was assasinated (helicopter tragedy) by Muslim terrorists because he had refused to remove his missionaries from West Africa.

Now another rumour surfaces, this time in the blogosphere:

NEWEST ON PETROS VII: According to one of my professors, who just returned from Greece, the press in Greece is saying that new evidence has been recovered about the helicopter accident that killed Petros VII,the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria, along with others on Sept 11, 2004 (the date sets off a number of bells, no?).

The crash site has been examined and the evidence investigators expected to find is not there: the propellers were intact. Thus, the current theory is that the “accident” was indeed caused by a bomb.

As you may know, Vladimir Putin was scheduled to be on that helicopter but changed his plans so that Petros VII could travel to the Holy Mountain.

We may never know the cause of this tragedy. But if any of you find news stories with an “explanation” I’d appreciate notice.

May their memory be eternal!