Murder of Katarzyna Zowada

**Katarzyna Zowada** ( December 1998) was a Polish student who was kidnapped and killed in 1998. Zowada was a university student who studied religion at the Jagiellonian University in the Polish city of Kraków. She was reported missing on November 12th 1998. However, her body was not found until the 6th of January, 1999. The skin of a torso was discovered in the Vistula River by a ship, and on the 14th of January, a cut off right leg was discovered in the same river. Both were matched to Katarzyna Zowada through DNA testing.

## Biography

Katarzyna Zowada was born on  to Polish parents in Poland. She grew up in Poland, near the Polish city of Kraków. Zowada's father had died in 1996 when she was in her early twenties. Two years later in 1998, Zowada went to Jagiellonian University and became a student there. She initially studied psychology before she switched and took a semester of history and passed it, but after taking that, Zowada took another semester in religion in the university, though she did not consistently attend classes. Her family and friends described her as a "kind, gentle, and smart young woman, but withdrawn, grieved, and depressed after the death of her father."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 with the loss of her father, and became extremely depressed, leading her to start taking therapy sessions, and though the attendance of her classes was spotty, the attendance of her therapy sessions were not, and. On November 12, 1998, her mother waited for her outside of her psychiatry clinic in the Nova Huta neighbourhood of Kraków where Katarzyna had a 6 p.m. psychotherapist appointment to help her with her grief and depression, however she never arrived. When her mother didn't see or hear from her, she was reported missing.

## Abduction and Death

In 1998, Zowada was approached and kidnapped by 52-year-old around December 1998. Perpetrator used a sharp tool to stab Zowada twice in the torso. After her kidnapping, she was falsely imprisoned, and physically hurt and tortured for maybe a few weeks before her murder. Perpetrator cut and removed all the skin from her torso while she was still alive. Perpetrator then let Zowada be exposed without the skin on her torso, get infected from the flaying, and die from the torture. When she died, killer cut up all of her body parts. He dumped the skin of her torso and her right leg in the Vistula River, which on January 6, 1999 a tugboat, called the Elk got something stuck in its propeller while sailing on the Vistula River, and while the boat workers thought it was some sort of giant rubber band or leathery material, it had a much more horrifying story. It was the human remains of Katarzyna, that had been fashioned into a skin suit. It is unknown what happened to the rest of the body parts, because they were never found.

## Court proceedings

In 2017, Robert Janczewski was arrested and later tried for the murder of Zowada. In 2022, the Kraków District Court found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment. However, in October 2024, the Court of Appeal in Kraków overturned the verdict and acquitted him due to lack of sufficient evidence. As of today, the identity of the killer remains unknown.

## Related pages

- Kelly Ann Bates

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Katarzyna Zowada
- **death date**: December 1998 (aged 23)
- **body discovered**: 6 January 1999
 (partially)
 14 January 1999 (right leg)
 Vistula River, near Kraków, Poland
- **known for**: Kidnapping and murder victim


## Infobox (civilian attack)

- **title**: Murder of Katarzyna Zowada
- **location**: Kraków, Poland
- **date**: December 1998 (date of murder)
 6 January 1999 (date of discovery of skin of torso)
 14 January 1999 (date of discovery of right leg)
- **type**: Abduction, physical abuse, stabbing, mutilation, dismemberment, and torture murder.
- **weapons**: Unknown, probably various, tools or instruments used for torture, mutilation, and dismemberment reasons.
- **motive**: Believed to be for sexual reasons
- **victim**: Katarzyna Zowada, aged 23
- **perpetrators**: Unknown