Elżbieta lived in Silesia with her husband and son, Amadeusz. However, alcohol and disagreements appeared in the family, so she decided to separate. In 1998, she moved with her child to Tarnów to start a new life. However, not everything went as she would have liked.
She came home from work, but Amadeusz was not there. The mystery was solved in a few days
After moving to Tarnów, Elżbieta found a job, and Amadeusz started attending a new school. Everything seemed to be falling into place, but on October 5, 2000, tragedy struck. Eleven-year-old Amadeusz went to school in the morning. Elżbieta had an afternoon shift that day, so she returned home after 9 PM. When she arrived home, she discovered that her son was not there. She began to worry, calling friends to ask if they had seen Amadeusz, but no one knew where he was. Amadeusz did not return by midnight, so Elżbieta went to the police to report his disappearance. The search began.
The next day, officers received a report of a boy's body found in a garbage chute in a building on Lwowska Street. At the scene, it was found that the deceased child's clothing matched the description of the missing boy. Additionally, the body was discovered not far from Elżbieta's home. It quickly became clear that the victim was Amadeusz. Onet reports that the cause of the child's death was suffocation. Narrow marks were found on the teenager's neck, likely caused by a belt. The news of Amadeusz's murder shocked not only Elżbieta but also the community. Everyone wondered who could do such a horrible thing. The eleven-year-old was well-liked and did not cause any behavioral problems. The mystery of the boy's death was solved a few days later.
He heard: "If you won't give, then f* off". A few moments later, Amadeusz was dead
A week after the boy's body was found, police arrested Robert N., a 28-year-old man who occasionally stayed in the basement of the building on Lwowska Street. Initially, the suspect did not admit to the crime, but over time he began to tell the officers what happened on October 5. The man testified that in the afternoon, a teenage boy approached him and asked if he could give him a cigarette. When Robert refused, Amadeusz reportedly said, "If you won't give, then f*** off". These words angered the man.
I grabbed him by the clothes and lifted him. Then the boy started to choke and twitch. I thought he was faking it, but after a while, he closed his eyes and stopped moving
- testified Robert N., whose words were quoted by the Polskie Archiwum X channel.
The man panicked and decided to throw the boy's body into the garbage chute in the building. Only then did he notice that Amadeusz had a thong with apartment keys around his neck.
I really didn't mean to hurt him. When I lifted him, the boy must have accidentally suffocated with that thong with keys
- testified Robert. The court sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
They found charred remains. It turned out the victim did not die in the fire
After Amadeusz's death, his mother developed a close relationship with a younger colleague from work. Piotr sympathized with Elżbieta over the loss of her only child. For her, it was more than just friendly concern. She stopped visiting her son's grave and started dressing differently. However, Piotr was in a relationship with Katarzyna O. and did not intend to break up with her. He could not have anticipated how the competition for his affection would end.
A month after Amadeusz's death, a fire broke out in a building on Lwowska Street. Firefighters arrived at the scene and, after controlling the blaze, discovered charred remains inside the elevator. The body was severely burned, making identification nearly impossible. The autopsy revealed that the deceased was a young woman who did not die in the fire. She had been brutally beaten and strangled before her body was thrown into the elevator and set on fire to eliminate evidence. The identity of the victim remained a mystery.
Shortly after, police received a report of Katarzyna O.'s disappearance from her concerned family, who had been unable to contact her for many hours. Officers began to suspect that the body found in the elevator might belong to the missing woman. Katarzyna's parents provided genetic material to the police so they could conduct DNA tests to establish the identity of the burned woman. The results unequivocally indicated that the body found in the elevator belonged to the missing Katarzyna.
They found evidence of her guilt in the vacuum cleaner. The court had no doubts
Officers interviewed all the residents of the building on Lwowska Street. Many people noted that before the fire, they heard the screams of two women coming from one of the apartments. It turned out that Elżbieta lived in that apartment. The police arrested her, but she claimed she had nothing to do with Katarzyna's death and had never even met her. Officers also interviewed Piotr, the victim's partner, who testified that Katarzyna had visited him at work and had seen Elżbieta there, with whom she had friendly conversations.
Police searched Elżbieta's apartment. The place was cleaned, but a special unit discovered bloodstains in the hallway and hair in the vacuum cleaner bag. It turned out the hair belonged to Katarzyna. Elżbieta was charged with murder, though she consistently claimed innocence. The court in Tarnów sentenced her to 11 years in prison, but not for murder, rather for fatal assault. The sentence was handed down shortly after Robert was convicted for Amadeusz's murder.
They noticed a woman with a stroller. The child's protruding legs worried them
In 2006, Elżbieta managed to get a temporary release from prison due to poor health. She moved in with a friend named Krystyna, whom she had met while incarcerated.
She had no one besides him. She lived for him, worked hard for him, did everything for him
- said Krystyna, quoted by "Uwaga!".
Shortly after Elżbieta was released, the police received a report of the disappearance of eight-year-old Madzia. Officers began searching for the girl, and the news spread quickly. In the evening, a group of teenagers in one of Tarnów's neighborhoods noticed a woman with a stroller, from which a child's legs were hanging. The young people warned her that it was dangerous, but she did not respond and tried to walk away quickly. When they approached her, she said she was in a hurry to see a doctor. When they commented that the clinic was in the opposite direction, she started to run.
One of the teenagers realized that the child in the stroller was dead. The young people caught up with the woman and kept an eye on her until the police arrived. It turned out that the detained woman was Elżbieta, who was on temporary release, and the dead child was the missing Madzia. Elżbieta told officers that she had found the sick girl and was trying to take her to a doctor. A key was found on Elżbieta, which later turned out to be for the apartment where she had killed Katarzyna years earlier.
In the apartment, investigators secured fresh evidence indicating the presence of the missing girl. Elżbieta had lured eight-year-old Madzia there under false pretenses and strangled her with a bandage. A few hours later, she stole a stroller from a staircase and tried to dispose of the child's body. Elżbieta did not confess to the crime.
She claimed she fainted at her son's grave. "He wanted me to bring him a sister"
After some time, the detainee began to change her testimony. She claimed she had been at the cemetery cleaning her son's grave and then fainted. When she regained consciousness, it was already dark. Elżbieta said she wanted to go home but felt weak again and didn't remember what happened next. Shortly afterward, she presented another version of events. She told officers that the spirit of her murdered son visited her and ordered her to do various things. She confessed that Amadeusz forced her to kill Madzia because he was bored in the afterlife and wanted a playmate.
I don't remember what happened after entering the apartment with Madzia, for which I had the key. When my memory returned, there was a corpse on the floor. Then I heard my son's voice. He wanted me to bring him a sister to his grave and leave her there. That's why I was pushing the stroller towards the cemetery
- she testified, as quoted by "Focus".
Elżbieta was sent for psychiatric observation at a hospital in Kraków. Psychiatrists concluded that the woman was insane. However, this opinion raised doubts because after the child's murder, Elżbieta consciously tried to get rid of evidence and repeatedly changed her testimony. "Uwaga" reports that the woman was subjected to another observation, this time in Starogard Gdański. Experts from this facility concluded that Elżbieta was sane. A similar opinion was also issued by a third hospital. Psychiatrists determined that a mentally ill person would deny having any problem, while Elżbieta behaved as if putting on a show and demanded medication. When given a placebo, she claimed the voices in her head quieted down.
Sane or insane? Experts issued conflicting opinions
The woman obstructed court proceedings. During the first hearing, she claimed she did not understand what she was being accused of, then said the documentation in her case had been destroyed by a fellow inmate. The court decided on another psychiatric examination.
No disturbances of consciousness or psychomotor inhibition were observed. The examinee understood the questions correctly, did not lose contact with people in the room, did not listen for voices from the afterlife. Psychological tests did not reveal personality structure disintegration
- psychiatrists stated, as quoted by "Focus".
While in custody, Elżbieta injured her eyelids and appeared in court with bandages on her eyes, claiming her son had ordered her to mutilate herself so she could see the world through his eyes. She insisted she could not participate in the trial for this reason. However, it turned out that the woman had no vision problems because shortly afterward, she began writing letters to the prosecutor's office. Elżbieta tried at all costs to secure a verdict that would sentence her to treatment in a psychiatric hospital. She referred to the results of doctors' examinations from Kraków.
Undoubtedly, her personal tragedy of losing a child must have had a destructive impact on her, and the fact that she had no other family or close people, apart from one friend, meant she had no chance to express her emotions and pain in a normal way
- said Elżbieta's defense attorney, Iwona Kornaś-Pietrzak, in an interview with "Fakt."
In June 2009, the court in Tarnów sentenced Elżbieta M. to life imprisonment. An appeal was filed against the verdict, but the appellate court upheld the sentence. The convict did not give up. She again sought the possibility of conditional release, but unsuccessfully. In 2019, the Supreme Court rejected her request to reopen the investigation in her case.
