The Disturbing Murder of Katarzyna Zowada

The beautiful Katarzyna Zowada before her brutal murder in 1998. Photo: talkmurder.com

Polish woman Katarzyna Zowada was tortured then skinned alive in 1998 by Robert Janczewski. He then fashioned her skin into a body suit and wore it.

Who was Katarzyna Zowada

Katarzyna Zowada was a 23 year old student at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. She was majoring in Religious Studies. Her friends described her as a nice person but rather sad and withdrawn.

Katarzyna had been suffering from depression since her father passed away in 1996. On November 12, 1998, Katarzyna was booked in for an appointment at the Psychiatric Clinic in Nowa Huta. Her mother had planned to meet her there. When Katarzyna failed to show up her mother was concerned and called the police. The police said it was too early to file a missing persons report and told her to wait.

The Investigation into the Murder of Katarzyna Zowada

The remains of Katarzyna Zowada as found by the Elk tug boat. Photo: talkmurder.com

On the 6th of January, 1999 a tug boat named the Elk got something stuck in it’s propeller while sailing on the Vistula River. The crew stopped to see what the problem was and found a strange rubber-band like material wrapped all the way around the propeller.

When the crew removed the object they saw a human ear and realised they had found the skin of a human being.

Police were called and DNA tests were undertaken which indicated that the skin belonged to Katarzyna.

It was initially assumed that the body had been damaged by the propeller but further testing uncovered the fact that the skinning had happened while Katarzyna was still alive. Katarzyna’s head and limbs had been purposefully removed and the skin had been fashioned into a bodysuit that had probably been worn by the killer.

The skin suit fashioned by Robert Janczewski. Photo: talkmurder.com

Police believe Katarzyna had been severely beaten, drugged and tortured for weeks before her death. Her body was covered in stab wounds and lacerations. There was evidence that she had been raped before and after her death.

Police had little to go on initially as they tried to find Katarzyna’s killer. In 1999 a man in Krakow named Vladimir W. murdered his father. He then cut the skin off of his father’s face and wore it as a mask. Police believed it was too much of a coincidence that two incidents like this could occur in one city in such a short period of time. They heavily suspected that Vladimir also murdered Katarzyna but had no evidence of this.

Nineteen years later, in 2017, police arrested 52 year old Robert Janczewski for the murder of Katarzyna Zowada.

Janczewski had been a person of interest in the initial investigation but not enough evidence was found to convict him. He was detained in 2017 after one of his friends wrote a letter to the police suggesting that Janczewski was a murderer.

Janczewski’s apartment was searched and traces of blood were found in the bath and bath frame.

Janczewski fit the psychological profile of someone who would commit an atrocious murder such as this one. He was highly trained in martial arts, had a history of harassing women and was known to visit Katarzyna’s grave often.

Janczewski had previously worked in a lab where he sometimes dissected human corpses. He was fired from the Cracow Institute of Zoology after all of the institutes rabbits were killed during his shift. Janczewski had no explanation for what happened to the rabbits.

Janczewski claims he never met Katarzyna and had nothing to do with her death. He has been incarcerated for the last five years with his trial information being kept private.

If you found this article interesting you may also be intrigued by the unexplained death of Patricia Viola or the strange case of Barbora Skrlova.