MURDERED: Katarzyna Zowada

Not showing up to a doctor’s appointment leads to the discovery of pure savagery committed against a 23-year-old university student.

 Katarzyna Zowada, born June 1st 1975, was, as friends described, a “nice but sad and withdrawn” person. She was studying at Jagiellonian University near Kraków, Poland, Katarzyna had tried two other fields before finally deciding on Religious Studies. Sadly, Katarzyna had been suffering from depression for the last two years of her life and was in the process of treating the mental illness with help from doctors.

On the day of her disappearance, November 12th 1998, Katarzyna was on the way to one of her many doctor’s appointments at the Psychiatric Clinic in Nowa Huta. She never made it to the appointment. Her mother had been at the clinic waiting for Katarzyna to arrive but quickly realized something was wrong, she reported Katarzyna missing at the local police station. There the police told her that she would have to wait.

Months would go by with no word from Katarzyna.

On January 6th 1999, the crew of the Elk pusher tug were out on the Vistula river when a crew member spotted something pale in colour that was long and foul-smelling in the water. As they took a closer look it was clear there was a human ear connected to this thing. It now seemed that the sailor had found someone’s remains in the river.

Later examination revealed that the sailor hadn’t discovered someone’s body but rather just their skin. Testing was done and DNA showed a match to 23-year-old Katarzyna Zowada. The police began searching the river as soon as possible. On January 14th they found Katarzyna’s right leg along with pieces of her clothing but that was all they would find.

Further examination of the pieces of remains that they had, the police made a disturbing discovery that Katarzyna’s skin had been prepared in a way that could have been worn as a suit.

Investigators connected experts from other countries just to try and find the monster that could do something this brutal.

In May of the same year, the Forensic Medicine Unit in Kraków received a corpse of a severed and scalped head. The killer, Vladimir W., was the victim’s own son. Weeks before his arrest, Vladimir was seen walking around wearing a mask of his father’s face. Investigators suspected Vladimir to be Katarzyna’s killer but they had no evidence to support their theory.

Just a year later the investigation was formally dropped but the officers involved would continue to follow credible leads.

Over a decade later, advances in technology would lead experts from the 3D Expertise Laboratory of Wrocław Medical University to make a model of Katarzyna’s injuries. They were able to conclude that the attacker had used a sharp tool on her neck, groin and armpits to inflict pain. The wounds led Katarzyna to bleed to death.

Two years go by and an FBI representative for Europe made a psychological profile of the killer pointing toward their sadistic tendencies.

A further two years would go by and the cold-case investigators that had been re-assigned to the case spoke to professor Duarte Nuno Vieira from the University of Coimbra. He was a Portuguese specialist in forensics and a UN expert in the field of torture of the human body. He confirmed that Katarzyna was tortured before her death and that it is most likely that the perpetrator was trained in martial arts. One, in particular, was decided but is undisclosed what kind of martial arts it is.

On October 4th, 2017, 19 years later, the police arrested 52-year-old, Robert Janczewski in Kraków, Kazimierz district after getting a letter from his friend. He was Janczewski was a person of interest in 1999 but he wasn’t arrested. The police searched his apartment and found blood inside the bathroom, they took the bath and bath frame away for testing.

Janczewski fit the profile almost exactly. He was trained in martial arts, knew the victim, visited her grave and had a history of harassing women. He previously worked at Cracow Institute of Zoology where he had the opportunity to watch the process of preparing animal skins. His employment was terminated a day after, during his shift, Janczewski killed all the rabbits.

Janczewski was charged with aggravated murder with particular cruelty, he claims that he didn’t know Katarzyna. The Court of Appeal agreed to extend detention to the 6th of September 2018 while the police gathered evidence.

December he complained that the police guards had been harassing him in prison but the claims weren’t investigated but nothing was found. After it was found out that the claims were groundless it was revealed that the police were going to add ‘lying to police’ by ‘falsely accusing the prison guards’ to his charges.

As of September 2019 investigators requested a closed trial but Janczewski is still in custody while the police gather furthe

(originally posted on medium.com/@natasha.leigh)