Murder of Katarzyna Zowada
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Katarzyna Zowada (1 June 1975 – c. December 1998) was a Polish woman who was abducted, physically abused, stabbed, mutilated, and dismembered, and torture murdered, in 1998, by a 52-year-old man named Robert Janczewski. At the time of her abduction, she was a university student who attended Jagiellonian University in the Polish city of Kraków, taking a semester for religion. On 6 January, the skin of a torso was discovered in the Vistula River, by a ship, and on 14 January, a mutilated and dismembered right leg was discovered in the same river. The skin of the torso and mutilated and dismembered right leg were positively identified through DNA as belonging to Katarzyna Zowada.
Katarzyna Zowada | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 June 1975 |
| Died | c. December 1998 (aged 23) |
| Body discovered | 6 January 1999 (skin of torso) 14 January 1999 (right leg) Vistula River, near Kraków, Poland |
| Known for | Kidnapping and torture murder victim |
Biography change
Katarzyna Zowada was born on 1 June 1975 to Polish parents in Poland. She was raised and lived in Poland, not far from the Polish city of Kraków. Zowada's father had died in 1996, when she was in her early twenties. 2 years later in 1998, Zowada began attending Jagiellonian University, in the nearby city of Kraków, and became a university student there. She took the semester of history, and passed the semester, but after taking that semester, Zowada took another semester in religion in the university. She was described by her family and friends as a "kind, gentle, and smart young woman, but withdrawn, grieved, and depressed after the death of her father". For a long time after her father died in 1996, Zowada was struggling to cope with the grief of the loss of her father, and became withdrawn and depressed as a result. Finally, her mother decided to take her to have a appointment with a psychotherapist, to help her with her withdrawal, grief, and depression, and told Zowada to consider going to the psychotherapist, to which she agreed. Her mother did arrange and fix a appointment in which Zowada could go and see the psychotherapist, and she would arrive as well, but one day, the 23-year-old Zowada disappeared and went missing. When her mother no longer saw or heard from her, she tried to report her as a missing person, but was told to be patient and wait by the police and authorities, before they could arrange and fix something.
Abduction and torture change
In 1998, Zowada was approached and abducted by a 52-year-old Robert Janczewski. After her abduction, she was held captive in Janczewski's house in the city of Kraków, where she was physically abused and tortured, and most likely drugged, probably for a few weeks prior to her torture murder. One day, sometime by c. December 1998, Janczewski approached and used a sharp tool or instrument stabbed Zowada, twice on her torso, probably as an attempt in order to mutilated and dismember skin from her torso, because after that, he tortured Zowada, to such a extremely harsh extent, by mutilating and dismembering all the skin from her torso, from top to bottom, while she was still alive. He then let Zowada be exposed without the skin on her torso, get infected from the flaying, and die from the torture. Once she finally died, he ended up mutilating and dismembering all of her body parts; which included her head, the tortured torso, and limbs (arms and legs). He dumped the skin of her torso, and her right leg, in the Vistula River. It is unknown what happened to the rest of the body parts, as they were never ever recovered.
| Murder of Katarzyna Zowada | |
|---|---|
| Location | Kraków, Poland |
| Date | c. December 1998 (date of murder) 6 January 1999 (date of discovery of skin of torso) 14 January 1999 (date of discovery of right leg) |
Attack type | Abduction, physical abuse, stabbing, mutilation, dismemberment, and torture murder. |
| Weapons | Unknown, probably various, tools or instruments used for torture, mutilation, and dismemberment reasons. |
| Victim | Katarzyna Zowada, aged 23 |
| Perpetrators | Robert Janczewski, aged 52 |
| Motive | Believed to be for sexual reasons |