Squatters take over home linked to twisted killing of UC Berkeley prof 30%
By George Kelly33%
7/15/2026, 1:00:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Availability Heuristic, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 18.8% saturation with 202 hits. Analysis detected 1,804 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,072 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 39.8% and a BS Rank of 30% (11,254 of 15,980 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 70.40% of the article peer group.
For months, residents of Berkeley’s Northbrae neighborhood have watched a house near Fountain Walk cycle through what looked like ordinary estate sales — quilts and knitted throws draped over a fence, tables of dishware, boxes of odds and ends spilling onto the grass.
Only later did they learn that the sales may have been organized by people with no legal right to be there.
The Marin Avenue property was taken over months ago by squatters who have clung to their foothold with blatantly false claims about their right to inhabit the home, according to a lawyer representing the family of the late owner.
Adding to the messiness of the eviction case is the property’s dark history, which enabled the alleged squatters to seize it.
The three-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2,167-square-foot home, valued by Redfin at $2.09 million, was owned by UC Berkeley professor Przemyslaw Jeziorski and his ex-wife, Konstantina “Nadia” Michelidaki.
Jeziorski was killed in Greece in a July 4, 2025, hit that allegedly involved Michelidaki, her boyfriend, and three others, according to reports.
Michelidaki was found dead in her jail cell from an apparent suicide last month, reports said.
The home, one of several the couple owned in Berkeley, was previously used as an Airbnb.
The family’s lawyer, Erin Stratte, said the property should be passed to their orphaned 11-year-old twin boys.
Standing in their way: Hannah Catone and Jose Contreras, the alleged squatters named in court papers.
In a statement submitted to the court, Catone says she paid $30,000 to the person she believed was Michelidaki for a one-year lease after touring the property in August 2025, then moved in with Contreras on Oct.
1.
Stratte points out that Michelidaki was locked up in Greece at the time this supposed deal was made, without access to a computer or an agent to execute a contract.
The house was unoccupied around Thanksgiving, contrary to Catone’s version of events, the lawyer said.
Yet Catone and Contreras remain in the home, protected by California tenant law, Stratte says.
“These squatters are taking advantage of orphan children that have a right to this property, and a system protecting their crimes,” Stratte said in a statement last month.
“Since then, neighbors of the property have reported the squatters to be stealing from the children by selling items from the home. ...
The city and police have also failed to act to hold squatters accountable.
We are asking for help from the public regarding this situation.”
On Feb. 16, a one-bedroom, one-bathroom in-law unit at the home was listed (in an error-laden Zillow post) for rent at $2,600 month-to-month or $2,400 per month for a year.
The listing was removed March 3.
The Standard found two men and a woman in the home Monday.
The woman declined to answer questions, and the men drove away separately without answering questions.
In a May court filing, Catone said she paid for a year’s rent with money she received as a settlement from a childhood accident and vowed to provide a copy of her lease.
She said she was stunned to learn that her supposed landlady had been jailed in the murder of her ex-husband.
“I can’t even believe it.
I don’t even know what to do,” Catone wrote, saying she has been unable to reach the person she paid.
“I will be getting a lawyer as this is just a very messy situation.”
Stratte believes Catone and Contreras took over the house Dec. 4, when Berkeley police responded to a report that four people had burglarized the home.
When cops arrived at 2:24 a.m., a silver Audi A3 fled, according to Berkeley police records.
The home’s front door had been kicked in, and the house was in disarray, suggesting squatters had been there, the investigating officer wrote.
Catone returned that morning while officers were present, telling them she knew nothing about a break-in and couldn’t say if anything was missing.
The person who’d reported the burglary never returned police calls.
Police were called back Jan. 29 on a report of possible squatters and found a man and woman inside.
Officers recognized the woman from December; she said the two were renting the property through March.
She was arrested after officers found an outstanding warrant from another agency, unrelated to the case.
“Given the length of time the involved parties have occupied the property and their claim of an existing rental agreement, this dispute is, from a law enforcement perspective, a civil matter that must be resolved through the civil court process,” police said Tuesday.
Stratte says Catone is a perpetrator, rather than a victim, of the burglary.
She said squatters have damaged a 100-year-old wall adjacent to the property, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
The eviction case was filed April 21 and is pending in Alameda County Superior Court.
Alameda County led the nine-county Bay Area in eviction lawsuits between July 2023 and June 2024, according to a report from the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority.
Two neighbors, Katherine King and a woman who gave her name only as Ruth, said they recalled yard sales at the property on several occasions stretching from roughly late April through last month.
On at least one occasion, King said, she saw quilts, dishware, and other items laid out along the sidewalk and fence but did not notice unusual foot traffic.
Ruth said a man who appeared to be running one sale told her the merchandise had come from a storage locker and been brought in by truck.
Stratte alleges the squatters are selling items from the house that do not belong to them.
“This is a troubling situation for everyone involved, and my office has been made aware of the concerns raised regarding the property,” Berkeley Councilmember Shoshana O’Keefe told The Standard, describing it as “a legal dispute over occupancy, and it’s the kind of matter that gets resolved through the courts.”
O’Keefe added that her office would seek to help, “whether that’s connecting parties with resources or making sure any code enforcement or public safety concerns are addressed.
We’re keeping an eye on the situation and hope it gets resolved fairly for everyone involved.”
The neighbors say their biggest complaint had been vehicle traffic and passersby along Marin Avenue, drawn by the yard sales.
“I think somebody was probably … double parked, and that stopped the flow,” Ruth said.
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