In the afternoon of October 7, 2018, Marinova's body was found in a riverside park in Ruse, which is a popular walking and jogging spot for the citizens of the town. She had been beaten and raped before being murdered, which occurred around noon of that Saturday. Marinova was the third journalist killed in the European Union in less than a year, after Daphne Caruana Galizia from Malta, and Jan Kuciak and his fiancée from Slovakia. 21-year-old Severin Krasimirov, who had fled to Germany, pled guilty to raping and murdering her and was sentenced on 23 April 2019 to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors stated that the attack appeared to be a random sexual assault unconnected to Marinova's work as a journalist.