Italian Investigation On Slovak Cannibal

Police sources working on the case of cannibal Matej Curko have just released the news of 30 Italian women who disappeared between January 2009 and May 2011, following Interpol reports. The unsolved cases fit the profile of consenting victims, however no bodies are yet matches. On the 12 May Curko died in a firefight with the Slovak police force. The trail he left behind is now under scrutiny.

Forensic experts and operational officers have little to go on in this investigation. Email correspondence between a possible Italian victim and Curko is being looked at closely, as well as Swiss-born Marcus Dubach. Dubach was a consenting victim who changed his mind at the last minute. However, emails give only the nationality (Italian) and age, so investigators have opened the case to include thirty crimes and unsolved cases. And after errors in the Meredith Kercher case, forensic experts want to be completely certain before making connections with Curko’s murders.

What Curko has left behind for forensics is his “fridge of horrors” in which he stored human body parts. Italian police have asked Slovak colleagues for biological evidence and tests from items in the fridge, so scientists can compare DNA results with samples of the missing women. Investigators reportedly found other bodies, or parts of them, including Lucia Uchnarova and Elena Gudjakova, two Slovakian women who disappeared in 2010.

Another trail left by Curko was online. He was contacted at his confidential email address kanibm@volny.cz, (kanibm) a nickname for Cannibal Matej. Only Curko’s two local victims have been uncovered, and because of the provider storing information for a limited amount of time, anything before May 2009 has been wiped. However, more leads may come out of the missing women’s email correspondences.

Currently, the only people no doubt involved were in Slovakia. Matej Curko’s final meeting was arranged for 10 May with Markus Dubach. Dubach, although Switzerland-based, had a Slovakian email address at the same provider as Curko. Instead of Curko finding Dubach in the Kysak forest, where he lived and worked, he found a police officer who shot him five times even though he was wounded himself. Investigators found a ceremonial alter in the woods, where the cannibal most likely killed his victims. He removed body parts to cook and eat, later hiding the remains.