The Wójtowicz family had lived in Kraków for many years. Robert studied at the Aviation High School in Dęblin in the Lublin Voivodeship and later attended the Faculty of Medicine at the Military Medical Academy in Łódź for three semesters. Loneliness led him to return to his family. Meanwhile, his father, Lech, worked in Russia, where he could earn much more than in Poland. The family frequently wrote letters to him, including Robert, whose messages from around 1993 became noticeably more melancholic. He wrote about "scorpions not knowing how to comfort," "waking up from a long sleep," "getting out of a dead-end street," and a "great revolution." Despite this, the relationships within the five-member family—mother, father, daughter, and two sons—were very good. Lech was planning to return to Poland soon, but after learning about his son's disappearance, he expedited his return.
Kraków: Robert Wójtowicz Left Home in January 1995. He Had Planned to Attend a Party the Day After His Disappearance
Robert Wójtowicz left his home on January 20, 1995, to take out the trash and then intended to go to lectures and the library. From that moment, he stopped contacting his family. The 23-year-old psychology student also failed to appear at the Jagiellonian University, which was uncharacteristic of him. Robert's mother reported the matter to the police, but the officers told her to wait 48 hours (it’s important to note that one does not need to wait 24 or 48 hours to report a missing person; the police are obligated to take the report regardless of the time elapsed since noticing the person's absence).
The police initially considered the scenario that the young student might have joined a cult. In the 1990s, Poland saw a rise in new and suspicious religious groups, and a 23-year-old interested in religions and somewhat lonely could have been an easy target. The idea that he had run away from his close-knit family seemed unlikely from the beginning. Investigators then considered whether Robert might have committed suicide. However, the family refuted this, emphasizing that their son and brother was very religious and attended church regularly, and in the Catholic faith, taking one's own life is considered a serious sin. Additionally, he had been accepted into a new field of study, something he had eagerly anticipated.
In a police note dated February 3, 1995, it was written: "Robert W. leaving home on the day of his disappearance was not solely due to a visit to the library, but also for a meeting with an unknown man." Despite extensive police efforts, as indicated by numerous files, there were no new leads in Robert's disappearance for a long time. Although Mr. Lech regularly appealed to the police and the media, posting posters of his son in Kraków on each anniversary, the case of the 23-year-old’s disappearance gradually faded from public attention.
The Cold Case Unit Took Over Robert's Disappearance After 20 Years, Leading to the Interrogation of Three Priests
In 2015, the Cold Case Unit re-examined Robert's case. According to tvn24.pl, the police believed this was another instance of the so-called "dark figure of crime"—cases treated as disappearances but later found to be murders. After 20 years, investigators concluded that the 23-year-old student had been murdered, most likely by someone close to him. What did the officers discover?
Attention turned to the chaplain of the university ministry that Robert belonged to before his disappearance. It turned out that Robert spent a lot of time with Father Adam, and he reportedly even visited the priest at his apartment. After Robert's disappearance—according to both the faithful and other priests at the parish—Father Adam appeared depressed, turned to alcohol, and avoided discussing Wójtowicz. In 2010, he even went to addiction therapy at the urging of his superiors. The priest explained this as due to pressure. When the Cold Case Unit took over the case in 2015, his alcoholism resurfaced.
In 2015, Father Andrzej, the brother of Father Adam, was also questioned. His testimony was deemed unreliable by a forensic psychologist. In 2018, Onet journalists learned of the testimony of a student who described an incident from 1997—Father Andrzej allegedly described Robert as "the one who was killed in the park in Mistrzejowice." The priest reportedly yelled at the journalists that he and his brother had killed the 23-year-old, wrapped his body in a carpet, and transported it in a car (Father Adam was driving a red Fiat 125p at the time). He later added that he was joking.
Investigators established that the day before his disappearance, the 23-year-old asked his mother for a white coat for a carnival party scheduled for January 21—the day after he went missing. In 2015, Father Andrzej testified that the missing man wanted to dress as a doctor, which he had mentioned to his brother—Father Adam, who claimed he had not seen Robert for three days before his disappearance. After 20 years, Father Adam could not recall what he had discussed with the student, but he remembered in detail the hours, addresses, and number of apartments he visited during the Epiphany caroling on January 20, 1995.
Another priest, Father Stanisław, who was a close friend of the brothers, was also interrogated. As reported by lifeinkrakow.pl, all three were vicars at the parish of St. Maximilian Kolbe in Nowa Huta-Mistrzejowice in 1995.
The Priests Were Given a Polygraph Test: They Reacted Nervously to the Same Questions
Fathers Adam and Andrzej traveled to Malta in 2018 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their priestly ordination, which took place in 1993. During the trip, they reportedly confided to other clergy that Robert had been killed and that they knew what had happened to him.
The three priests were subsequently subjected to a polygraph test. Onet journalists obtained the results, which indicated that:
- In the case of Father Adam, there was "a high probability that he is directly involved in Robert Wójtowicz's disappearance."
- In the case of Father Andrzej, it was determined that he was "involved in the crime, but at the stage of covering it up, not in its commission." He was also identified as an anonymous informant who led investigators to the cult theory.
As for Father Stanisław, at three of the 11 locations related to the possible site of the murder, he exhibited "extremely strong changes in blood pressure and heart rate." These were at the indications of the presbytery in Adam's room, on Złotego Wieku estate in Kraków (near the presbytery), and in Mistrzejowicki Park; suggesting he may be concealing knowledge that could help catch the killer.
Each of the priests reacted strongly to the same questions:
- Do you know who committed the murder?
- Was Robert murdered in the priest's room?
- Was Robert strangled?
- Were the remains wrapped in a blanket or carpet?
- Was the body transported in a Fiat 125p?
Onet Unofficially: Fathers Andrzej and Adam Allegedly Met with Archbishop Jędraszewski
In 2018, the Kraków District Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into the murder. At the end of 2019, the Kraków Curia spoke publicly about Robert's disappearance for the first time. They assured that they were ready to cooperate with the police and prosecutor's office.
In 2020, Onet journalist Dawid Serafin called priests from the Kraków diocese who had completed their seminary studies in 1993 and had been on the trip to Malta. None of the 16 questioned priests wanted to talk about the events that took place on the "pilgrimage." They cited memory lapses, internal community matters, lack of time, or said it was "better to leave this matter to God."
According to Serafin, Fathers Adam and Andrzej were urged to reveal everything they knew. They were also said to have met with Kraków Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski, and according to Onet, this meeting indeed took place. However, it is unclear whether or what actions the Curia took regarding the matter. It is known that in 2019, Father Adam was working in a small parish in the Kraków region and teaching religion at a school. Father Andrzej, on the other hand, was a vicar at a Kraków parish.
"The Counterweight to This Conspiracy of Silence Is the Heroic Stance of the Father, Who Continues to Seek the Truth"
"If I had to die now, I would regret not having held a funeral for my son. Robert always said that he didn't expect anything from the world because he had something to give to it. Someone interrupted his plans. He was buried by that person, and there was no one there with him. In his final moments, he was alone with his murderer," said Lech Wójtowicz in 2019.
"What moves me deeply in this case is both the crime itself (the missing psychology student is most likely dead) and the conspiracy of silence surrounding it. It is virtually impossible that no one from the university, parish, or University Ministry knows anything. The counterweight to this conspiracy of silence is the heroic stance of the father, who continues to seek the truth, enduring unimaginable suffering and humiliation like the biblical Job. He does not seek revenge, but the possibility of lighting a candle on his beloved son's grave," wrote Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski on his blog in January this year.
The statute of limitations for murder is 30 years. For Robert Wójtowicz, this would be in 2025.
