Fit for a Killer (2026) s01e01 Episode Script
Episode 1
[male voice whispering indistinctly]
The whole world
for the sake of his sorrowful passion
Have mercy on us
and on the whole world
for the sake
of his sorrowful passion
[heavy rumbling]
[male voice 1] It's one of the most
brutal and mysterious crimes
in Poland's history.
[whispered prayer continues]
[male voice 2] The average person
would consider this crime
to be beyond the pale
and utterly disgusting,
but to him it was not.
[male voice 3]
Anyone could become a murderer.
[male voice 1] This is a story
about just how far a human can go
to hurt someone else
when given
even a tiny amount of power.
[discordant piano music playing]
[church bell chimes]
[typewriter clicking]
[boat motor humming]
[tense, pulsing music playing]
[Sitarski] On January 7th,
1999,
a call came in,
saying that human remains had been
discovered in the Vistula river
in the propeller of a pusher boat.
They wasted no resources or personnel
in investigating this case.
Second Lieutenant Sitarski
of Kraków's police headquarters
has confirmed that
human remains were discovered
on a pusher boat on January 7th.
[reporter] Where were they located?
[boat worker] That day,
they were found
right on top of this space.
Right here.
- [reporter] Floating in the water?
- Yes, the remains were floating.
Part was down there
and part was up above.
[Nowak] It had seemed
like any other day.
The deputy investigative director
came by
and said, "Listen, we've uncovered
something very strange.
Something was found
that looks like human skin."
[pulsing music playing]
The "Los" was stationed
somewhere around here.
This is how it all began.
[Sitarski] People combed the archives
for similar cases,
cases where,
due to an accident or something,
only the victim's skin was left.
Theories abounded,
such as if this was a tragic accident
or the result of suicide.
[Nowak] The recovered skin fragment
was sent to Forensic Medicine.
That's standard procedure.
But several days later
the situation changed drastically
because a doctor called us
and what he said was shocking.
The skin had been very meticulously
separated from the body
in a precise manner.
[Fuja] The skin was cut off
in a specific way.
According to our experts,
it was cut off in the form of a corset.
The nipples had been removed,
as had the neck and a piece of an ear.
It looked as though someone
was trying to wear the skin,
almost as if it were
a piece of clothing.
[tense percussive music playing]
[Szaszkiewicz]
We determined the skin was a woman's.
But how was it removed?
No one had ever seen
anything like this before.
I mean, removing the skin
off a victim's body?
It was a crime
no one had ever even conceived of,
and almost impossible to do.
Only a highly-skilled craftsman
could accomplish such a thing,
because skin is very tightly entwined
with the other structures of the body.
[tense percussive music continues]
We've seen such acts in films
like The Silence of the Lambs
but even there,
the man would kill a woman
and then remove her skin
piece by piece.
What we found was one piece
in the back and one in the front.
The perpetrator apparently wanted
to wear it like a sweater
or a body suit.
[whispering] Holy Immortal One,
please have mercy on us
and on the whole world.
[whispered prayer continues]
[Sitarski] Our first order
was searching the Vistula river.
We searched around the barrages
and the remaining body parts
were recovered.
[Fuja] More body parts
were found in the vicinity
of the hydroelectric plant,
two gluteus maximus
and a muscle fragment.
I learned about this case
through a female coworker.
This case really shook women
in particular.
The Cracovians started to suspect
that it could be a serial killer
and there would be more victims.
[eerie drone playing]
[reporter]
The remains were recovered
from this stretch of the Vistula
over one week,
and although any further information
was classified,
rumors spread that police
had also pulled from the water
an entire human skin
removed from its body.
The prosecutors stated that they are
currently investigating this case.
Several pieces of human flesh
were uncovered.
Is one of them of human skin?
Several pieces of a human body.
In Kraków,
there was something of a panic.
I was afraid too, of course.
Absolutely terrified.
My female friends were afraid
to go out after dark,
to go near the Vistula.
In Kraków there was really
this atmosphere of utter anxiety
and fear,
considering that the perpetrator
was still on the loose
and no one knew
when he was going to strike again.
[Fuja] Police checked
the missing persons list
to try to identify the victim.
[brisk orchestral theme music]
This is what the 23-year-old student
looked like when she went missing.
She left her house
on November 12th last year
and no one has seen her since.
We've learned that two days earlier,
she was seen with a man
near the iconic bridge
on the banks of the Vistula.
[Fuja] Height, 170 centimeters.
Blonde hair, green eyes.
She was wearing
a hooded corduroy jacket in navy blue
with a blue turtleneck, black pants
and black lacquered boots.
She also had a black leather backpack.
[distant voices of children playing]
[Dagmara] I went to primary school
with Kasia in the 96th in Kraków.
Both of us lived in Olsza.
We met at school.
We spent a lot of time hanging out
at each other's homes.
We were rather quiet
compared to the rest of our class.
Our classmates
were much more dynamic and colorful.
We used to call Kasia "Czinka",
a diminutive of her surname,
because there were
other Kasias in the class, too.
My mother called me one day,
very upset.
She had seen an announcement
saying that Kasia was missing.
There was a manhunt.
Our phones were ringing off the hook.
[Kasia's mother] Kasia is
a student of Religious Studies
at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
Outside of her studies,
Kasia likes to spend her spare time
listening to rock music,
reading speculative fiction
and watching movies.
She also enjoys
hiking in the mountains
and we would take frequent vacations
to mountain regions,
often spending our holidays there.
We would visit the Tatra mountains
and Zakopane
as well as Silesian Beskids.
[typewriter clicking]
[Sitarski] The day she went missing,
Katarzyna was supposed
to meet her mother.
They'd had an appointment
with a therapist whose office
was located in Nowa Huta.
But Katarzyna never made it
to that appointment.
[clock ticking]
[tense music playing]
[Frątczak] Theories that the victim
could be Katarzyna Zowada
started to abound in January 1999.
In a first for Poland,
the decision was made
to perform
the nation's first DNA test.
This was a complete novelty
at the time.
[Fuja] The DNA was retrieved
from Katarzyna's hairbrush.
[tense piano music builds]
The DNA test proved
beyond a shadow of a doubt
that the skin did belong to Katarzyna,
our missing university student.
On top of everything,
all of us, her loved ones,
had to deal with the knowledge
that somewhere in Kraków
there might be someone
who managed to commit
such a horrible crime.
There was also Kasia's mother
waiting in vain
for justice to be served
to the person responsible
for her daughter's death.
[bell chiming]
We focused our efforts
on piecing together
a full picture of her life.
Her habits, her routines,
what she had been doing
immediately before she went missing.
To profile a perpetrator,
look at the victim.
Profiling is a methodology
that allows us to establish
theories about the perpetrator
based on what one can,
without actually knowing them
in any real depth,
establish about them.
[wind blows softly]
Katarzyna suffered from depression
due to her father's death.
They were very close.
It was on a mountain trip with her
that her father suffered an accident
that permanently disabled him
and eventually led to his death.
[Fuja] She was aware
that he was dying.
Testimonies
from people who knew her
said she blamed herself
for his death.
In her final year, even her mother
found her growing even more distant.
[Sitarski]
Apparently she had stopped
showing up for class altogether.
The prevailing theory was
that she had recently met a man
who had
something to do with her death.
[chiming]
Her mother was
a rather emotionally distant person
so it's easy to presume
that mother and daughter
had a similarly distant relationship
as well.
It feels almost inevitable.
I think Kasia actually was holding on
to more than just one secret.
It could be that Kasia
was hiding things from her mother
as many young women do,
such as that she'd recently met a man.
It makes sense that she wouldn't
volunteer that information.
Right before she went missing
she got her hair dyed.
[eerie piano music playing]
Her closest friends testified
that she liked this boy
and would like to date him.
According to them, the two of them
had met at the record fair.
[jazzy bassline playing]
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,
this is Jerzy Skarżyński
bringing another night
devoted to music history.
We'll start off with a band
whose music could be described
as detached from reality
or psychedelic.
Some claim it evokes sensations
equivalent to those experienced
after you ingest
certain illicit substances.
Simply said, it makes you feel
like you're tripping.
This is the way I'd put it.
The Grateful Dead!
["Wharf Rat"
by Grateful Dead plays]
[song continues in headphones]
[Budzyn]
I was reminded of this band by a girl
who came in looking
for their records.
[song continues in headphones]
Each time she looked
at one of their albums
I'd see immense joy in her face.
I attended the Pod Przewiązką Fair
where I would buy and sell records.
They would hold it on a weekly basis.
Tons of people with tons of records.
If someone happened
to be looking for something specific,
I had enough contacts
that I was always able
to dig up something interesting.
There they are.
It wasn't just for business.
Sure, some people focused on selling
but those were very few.
The fair really consisted
mostly of true enthusiasts, real fans.
It could very well be
that Kasia connected
with some of their regulars.
This lead
was very thoroughly looked into.
[Budzyn] I found it so endearing
how into this kind of music she was.
After all, we're talking
about music from the late '60s,
not the kind of music
her generation usually listens to.
I think mostly, she was introduced
to this music by someone else,
someone close to her.
[Skarżyński on radio]
Coming up next, the listeners' hour.
Your favorite tunes,
only here at RMFFM.
These are selected by Kasia.
Tell us what we've got.
[Kasia over phone] A piece by Genesis.
"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight."
[Fuja] I remember this.
She called the radio station
and won some contest or something.
[Skarżyński] On a desert island,
if you could take one album by Genesis,
would it be one
with Gabriel or Collins?
[Kasia] Gabriel, for sure.
- Can I give a shout-out to someone?
- We don't normally, but go ahead.
I'd like to give a shout-out
to Anka, Ula
and everyone at Third-D
at my high school.
[Skarżyński] Done.
Listening to Genesis. Thanks.
[Kasia] Thanks.
Can you tell me
where my country lies ♪
Said the unicorn
to its true love's eyes ♪
It lies with me
cried the Queen of Maybe ♪
For her merchandise
he traded in his prize ♪
[rumble of thunder]
[Fuja] Only four months
after the woman's remains were found
the result of a second crime
was discovered.
[Sitarski]
I've seen many crime scenes.
Let me tell you,
it never looks like that.
[Fuja] These kind of images haunt you.
[sinister orchestral music builds]
[Spokesman] Details are coming in
regarding this horrific murder.
We know it was committed
inside the secluded house.
Inside this house,
officers found human remains,
this time the body of a man.
[Frątczak] On May 31st, 1999,
one of the prosecutors
gets a phone call
saying she must go
to this small village.
It turned out
that in the building's cellar,
the corpse of a man was found
hanging by his feet.
His body was cloaked in a red bag.
The tendons of both knees were slashed
and he had been decapitated.
In a shocking twist,
his son had removed the skin
from his father's face,
placed it over his own face
like a mask,
and started walking around
wearing this mask made of human skin.
The murder committed in this house
could be connected
to the case involving the remains
of a young woman in January.
He walked right out of the house.
The skin mask looked so realistic
that his grandfather on the porch
didn't even notice it.
He thought the father was leaving,
not his grandson
wearing his father's face.
I called the police
who came and took him.
[Sitarski] It's alarming
to know that the perpetrator
of such a grisly crime
is in the vicinity.
Although instructed not to,
we jumped in the car
and went looking for this man.
On the left side of the road
there was a bus stop.
[tires screech]
[handbrake clicks]
[tense percussive music playing]
[Sitarski] The grandfather had told us
that his grandson's head
was shaved at the top
so we were 100 percent sure
it was him.
[Womaczko]
It was like a bomb going off.
You feel insane.
But after a couple of hours,
the adrenaline dies down.
I'm from the North Caucasus
originally.
We have these ancient customs.
His name is Włodymir Womaczko,
a former med student
who switched to psychology
at Jagiellonian University
where Katarzyna Zowada was studying,
so he and Katarzyna
probably knew each other.
Everyone here was convinced
it had to be him.
Our guy.
The one that skins people.
One last thing.
Within the cellar of this house,
police discovered an area
where cement was poured.
Officers are not ruling out
the possibility of another body.
[Frątczak] The odds of two
such similar skinnings to occur
in an area as small as Kraków,
within such a short time
is practically nonexistent.
[Szaszkiewicz] A search like this
had never been conducted.
The top layer of earth was removed
from the garden and sifted through
in order to hopefully find
any trace of Kasia.
They found nothing.
After every conversation
we had had with him,
our case against him weakened.
I agreed to this interview
to set the record straight.
They were talking about some sort
of sexually motivated murder
and I said,
"What do I have to do with that?"
"I don't know her name or anything."
I was the expert psychiatrist
on this case,
assessing the level
of the perpetrator's sanity.
Not only was he examined
on an outpatient basis,
he was also placed
under psychiatric observation.
We performed
a battery of tests and
conducted countless interviews.
We learned the motives
for his actions.
Despite our initial instincts
or let's say our conjectures
based on the fact
that we were all convinced
that such a deed could not
be committed by a sane person,
after detailed analysis, it turned out
his motive
was something else entirely.
Because yes,
Womaczko had killed his father
but he then acted in a way
which can be categorized
as closer to a ritual.
It mimicked ritualistic customs
performed by his ancestry.
By making a mask
of his father's facial skin,
by wearing it
over his own face as he did,
he was actually expressing contempt
for his father in an artistic sense.
He viewed his father as someone
who had egregiously wronged his mother
by breaking his marriage vows
and leaving her for another woman.
This was the reason
for which he killed his father.
Everyone on the planet
is capable of killing.
Let's say 99 percent of people would
in the right circumstances.
It's just not something most people
ever learn about themselves.
It doesn't seem to me that Włodymir
would lie about his lack of connection
to Katarzyna and her mother.
The search for Katarzyna's killer
started anew.
[discordant piano music playing]
[Fuja] A resident of Kazimierz
popped up in the investigation.
This area is close to the place
where Katarzyna's remains were found.
A local police officer had
thorough knowledge about his citizens
so a list was then drawn up
of anyone who could be the killer.
One of the names on the list
was Robert Janczewski.
[Fuja] I had met him once before
but just in passing.
I lived one street over from him.
To be honest,
he seemed like a weirdo.
- [Fuja] Let me help.
- Fuck you.
He was always talking to himself.
He'd shoulder-check you
on the sidewalk.
People knew
he lived in a different world.
But that was Kazimierz for you.
Robert always took
the same routes
to church,
to his barber.
He liked to have his hair
very neatly cut.
The investigators are classifying
this crime as a sex crime,
so they're searching for men
who are either previously convicted
or have been suspected
of assaulting women.
Robert Janczewski's police file
is quite extensive,
including reports
from women he's harassed,
from women he's stalked,
pestered, followed.
A neighbor who lived across the street
reported that Robert was following her
and watching her through the window.
That the moment she would get
on the train, Robert would too.
She understandably
became very afraid of him.
[Fuja] In his police file,
there are even reports he filed
against himself
after exposing himself in Błonia,
because voices in his head
had told him to undress.
My name is Jacek Matkowski.
I've been a doctor
and a psychotherapist
for many, many years.
I met Robert, I think,
in December of 1991,
after meeting with his father
at the facility
where Robert was a patient.
I was head of the community
mental health team
in Kraków's central district.
Robert's first stay
at a psychiatric clinic
lasted around five weeks.
This was January
to February of 1992.
During that time,
he was diagnosed with paranoia
and a mixed personality disorder,
which together met the diagnostic
criteria for schizophrenia.
[Góra] He was a very lonely man,
constantly rejected by women.
I learned this
from people who knew him
and who would interact with him.
[Fuja] They immediately conducted
a thorough search of his house.
Nothing was found.
His place was clean.
But his notebook was confiscated.
"His last confession,"
as the lead investigator put it.
And within this notebook,
accounts of his nightmares,
voices that would talk to him,
people in his dreams,
stories of intense remorse.
Those notes contained details
of a religious awakening
he'd experienced in December
of 1998, around the same time
that Katarzyna died.
[whispering] Have mercy upon us
and on the whole world
for the sake of his sorrowful passion.
Have mercy upon us
and on the whole world
for the sake of his sorrowful passion.
Have mercy upon us
and on the whole world
for the sake of his sorrowful passion.
The notebook also had
mysterious scribblings
that would just say, "Leather bag,
cattle, video booth, five women."
Makes you wonder.
The police decided to investigate
to see whether or not Robert had,
by any chance,
done a renovation
on his house recently.
[discordant piano music playing]
[Fuja] It turns out, he had.
[grunts]
According to the neighbors,
Robert was regularly seen
leaving with full plastic bags.
[man] He put on a coat
and disappeared.
Look, he's on a bike.
Where's Janusz?
Get in. Let's go.
He's turning left.
[honks horn]
There he is.
He's walking towards the coroner's.
[Fuja] Good.
I'll stop here.
[man] Don't drive so fast.
The hard proof simply wasn't there.
We had nothing which could
in any way
connect him to the murder.
Less than two years
after launching the investigation,
police were forced
to discontinue it.
It didn't halt
all operational proceedings
but I had stopped
personally working on this case.
[Fuja]
In 2017 the case was taken over
by Kraków's cold cases unit.
[Frątczak] It is a team created by
the police headquarters of Kraków,
whose primary objective was working
on unsolved crimes.
For years, the head of this department
was Bogdan Michalec.
He was also one of the first officers
to work on Katarzyna's case.
When the opportunity arose,
he reopened the investigation
because he'd never been able
to let it go.
I'm pleased to say
that this case has been reopened
due to its unique, unorthodox nature,
and because it's one of my main goals
to see that it's brought to trial.
From this point, he would be
spearheading the investigation
in order to solve the case.
[Michalec] The case was consulted
by a representative of the FBI.
It was he who said
this is the sole known example
in the world of a case
involving such a method of skinning.
From the start, there was
a significant difference
between Bogdan and I,
when it came to the case,
or even the way we liked to work.
I like to focus more
on clues and evidence.
Bogdan was more intuition-based.
He went off of his heart, his spirit.
Bogdan was convinced
that Robert was the perpetrator.
I did not share this conviction.
[reporter] Several days ago,
the investigation was reopened.
The reason is top secret.
Most likely, after 13 years,
police have managed to uncover
new evidence or new witnesses.
The main link
between Katarzyna and Robert
was that one of Robert's teachers
went to school with her father.
[tense music builds]
There was also the suspicion that,
knowing Katarzyna's father,
the teacher could have set the girl up
with his former student,
who he knew more closely.
[Fuja] Good morning!
[Szigmund] Good morning.
- For Mr. Szigmund?
- Yes.
- May we chat for a moment?
- Yes.
Let me say this.
I know Robert from school.
I know his father.
I used to know Zowada, Kasia's father.
Yes, she was the daughter
of my colleague, a fellow teacher.
I worked at the Technical High School
for Electrical Science in Nowa Huta.
He taught history.
- The father?
- Zowada.
- Kasia's father taught history?
- Yes, he was a good friend of mine.
I suspect this was
a recurring issue for Robert,
most likely
for as long as he can remember.
Namely, the desire
to meet someone, to connect.
This was an aspect of Robert's life
that he didn't exactly flaunt.
He was most likely embarrassed by it.
Robert was absolutely determined
to meet a woman,
to have a relationship.
He even placed personal ads
in Teletext.
He did get some replies from girls
and he would meet up with them.
[Józef] My name is Józef Janczewski.
Robert is my son.
I remember one girl who had arrived
to the date a little late.
Late by almost 15 minutes.
[rings bell]
And he said,
"15 minutes late? Disqualified!"
That's how all his relationships
with girls were.
He wasn't attractive.
For women, an attractive guy
is one who earns well,
who could even be bald.
An attractive guy
is one who dances well.
At attractive guy is tall, and so on.
But Robert?
He's none of those things.
Knowledge can certainly
be attractive to many women.
Like me.
I for one can be overly chatty,
but I pride myself
on also being very well read.
Talking only about religion?
Most women will probably
not find that attractive.
I'll admit, there's something about
his look that can be off-putting.
There's this stare in his eyes,
as if he's constantly
scrutinizing you, assessing you,
probing you.
[tense percussive music playing]
Robert was like a volcano
on the verge of eruption.
He would slam doors, make loud noises.
No wonder people were afraid of him.
Especially when you look at his
physique on top of everything else.
Since the mid-90s, it had been clear
to everyone who knew him
that he was both a strong
and well-built man.
[Frątczak] As well as the evidence,
there was also
an opinion from an expert
that Katarzyna had actually
been tortured and beaten
prior to her death.
It would then be by someone
experienced in martial arts.
[tense percussive music playing]
[yelling]
[Frątczak] Robert was indeed
practicing bodybuilding
and martial arts.
[breathing heavily]
[Farynski] I used to work at the gym
run by Vishka Venka.
It was an iconic place.
Robert was peculiar and not everyone
wanted to talk to him,
but I was the receptionist so my job
was literally to talk to people.
I had to tolerate him.
That's how our acquaintance began.
When it came to girls,
whenever he would talk to them,
he would immediately
be shut down every time.
Because of this
he got a bit of a reputation,
because someone
would always come to us and complain
about Robert accosting them.
He wasn't accosting them.
He just wanted to talk to a woman.
[Nowak] A psychological portrait
was put together on Robert
by a team of experts.
He checked every box
when it came to the profile:
his age, his education,
his unique skills.
Not to mention the fact
that he even had experience
working with animals.
I'm thinking about
skinning, here.
[liquid flowing]
[discordant piano music playing]
I had gone through
a lot of lab workers
before I hired Robert Janczewski.
He turned out to be
a very diligent employee.
He had to clean the cages
and feed the animals.
True, he was not
a very cheerful person, so to speak.
He was always serious.
He would often ask
his female colleagues
for advice
on how to be liked by girls.
One colleague asked Robert
if he ever exercised.
To prove his strength,
he supposedly decided
to demonstrate a Nelson hold on her.
She immediately ran to me
and told me what he had done.
I remember clearly saying to him,
"Robert,
you only ever touch a woman
if and when she lets you."
[rock music playing]
There's a deposition by Robert's
coworker at the Institute of Zoology.
What we learned
is that Robert allegedly
invited her to his home.
She wanted to take a look
at a stereo system
because she wanted one
for her child.
Robert offered to show her his.
According to that woman,
the second she entered his apartment,
Robert locked the door behind her
and said,
"I'm not letting you out of here."
[rattling handle]
[woman crying]
They found out he'd done
his mandatory military service
in the morgue of a Kraków hospital.
Witnesses recounted
their experiences of him,
including that he'd participated
in autopsies
and seemed very interested in how
to drain a woman's body of her blood.
Those who performed the autopsies
would hold a "Miss Shelf" context
to decide which corpse was prettiest.
[Dąbrowski] One of Robert's colleagues
said that he had killed those rabbits.
It was unnecessary.
The colleague lost that fur,
and that was the reason
why Robert was then terminated.
[discordant piano music playing]
[Fuja] Robert was brought up
by his grandparents.
It was tough a tough upbringing.
His grandmother
was extremely catholic.
She would force him
to go to church
and would dress him
in a sackcloth.
His grandparents beat him.
They brought up
all their children this way.
Robert's father had also
been subjected to corporal punishment,
and they did the same
to their grandson.
If he was caught
not paying attention in church,
the grandparents,
holding his hand,
would crush his fingers
between theirs
to force him to behave
according to their expectations.
If someone had ever asked me,
"If your father beat you,
if you were brought up
in such unpleasant conditions,
why would you give your son away
to be raised by your parents?"
I would tell them,
"Because of discipline."
Do you know
where the word discipline comes from?
The word discipline
is actually etymologically derived
from the Latin word for a rod.
As in, rod of discipline.
Discipline!
And what does one do with a rod?
Sometimes you need to reprimand a kid
by giving them a slap here and there.
My father beat me
and for good reason.
Here we have a man charged
with making overt threats,
to the extent
that is punishable by law.
This man is 35,
lives with his mother,
suffers from mental illness,
he's aggressive towards his neighbors
and towards women.
No one knows how he behaves
when alone.
The neighbors, who had been hearing
a lot of rumors about him,
say that he recently experienced
profound metanoia,
that he'd become
fanatically religious,
prostrating himself in church.
The Robert Janczewski before 1998
and after 1998
are two very different people.
The police started to form
a clearer
mental picture of the suspect,
one who fits
into this crime perfectly.
[Janczewski] For the sake
of his sorrowful passion
have mercy on us
and on the whole world.
For the sake of his sorrowful passion
have mercy on us
and on the whole world.
For the sake
of his sorrowful passion
[pulsing music playing]
[Fuja] Robert behaves in a way
which fits the police's suspicions
so they think
that it must be him.
Janczewski stated during an interview
that he came in, in order to learn
more about Katarzyna's murder.
He repeatedly claimed
to be interested in the case
not out of guilt,
but because the case
had particularly affected him.
He added that the police
should look into Leszek L,
who used to skin animals,
and not just focus
their efforts on him.
Who would be so emotionally attached
to the victim,
if not the perpetrator?
[Fuja] They played
a TV program for him.
When Katarzyna's mother
came on screen,
Janczewski knelt down before the TV
and started kissing her hands.
He stated he couldn't
have killed Katarzyna
because his remorse
would be so strong
that he would have had
to commit suicide.
Sounds like
the perfect murder suspect.
[Fuja] One of the other pieces
of incriminating evidence,
albeit circumstantial,
is that after Katarzyna's death
and after he'd been flagged
as a potential suspect,
for some reason,
he kept on visiting the girl's grave.
Why would a complete stranger
with no connection to Katarzyna
visit the grave of the girl
he's suspected of killing?
[Frątczak] The investigators decided
they had so much evidence
that the only thing left to do
was conduct another search
of Robert's home.
With all this circumstantial evidence,
the Prosecutor's office
decided to arrest Robert
in a way that deliberately drew
a lot of attention, in October 2017.
[upbeat jingle plays]
With us is Michał Fuja, co-director
of a documentary for Superwizjer TVN .
- Good morning.
- Morning.
Tell us what made you
follow Robert J's trail.
You're asking about the inner workings
of a journalist's job.
[Fuja]
Look, the door's already opened.
The gray one.
There's someone near the entrance,
to stop him from getting in.
There he is.
[siren blaring]
There was an investigation
at the same time.
Yes.
[male host] Was there collaboration?
You were both working on this case.
Your documentary, the police case
[Fuja] There are people claiming
it was staged. It wasn't.
The prosecutor
didn't pick up the phone,
but the fact that he didn't,
plus the frenzy,
made us realize
something must be happening.
The case had been open
for 19 years.
Anyone could participate
in the investigation.
But now, suddenly,
no one wants to talk
because it's the final stretch.
Please notify my mother.
The police and prosecutors claimed
to have ironclad proof of his guilt.
I believed he might be the perpetrator.
[tense, pulsing music builds]
I, Robert Janczewski,
had nothing whatsoever to do
with the horrible crime committed
against Katarzyna Zowada.
I did not know this person
and have never met her in my life.
[Frątczak] There are four cameras
in the footage of Robert's arrest.
It was an instant lightbulb moment.
[Nowak] A clairvoyant helped draw
the sketch of the perpetrator.
[Frątczak] We became convinced
it was all wrong.
[Fuja] How had Robert gotten
mixed up in this case?
Sack up!
- Crouch. Cough.
- [Robert coughs]
[Robert] I had a plan to break
a bottle and slice open my artery.
You could have stopped this,
Mr. Prosecutor!
[glass shatters]
[discordant piano music playing]
The whole world
for the sake of his sorrowful passion
Have mercy on us
and on the whole world
for the sake
of his sorrowful passion
[heavy rumbling]
[male voice 1] It's one of the most
brutal and mysterious crimes
in Poland's history.
[whispered prayer continues]
[male voice 2] The average person
would consider this crime
to be beyond the pale
and utterly disgusting,
but to him it was not.
[male voice 3]
Anyone could become a murderer.
[male voice 1] This is a story
about just how far a human can go
to hurt someone else
when given
even a tiny amount of power.
[discordant piano music playing]
[church bell chimes]
[typewriter clicking]
[boat motor humming]
[tense, pulsing music playing]
[Sitarski] On January 7th,
1999,
a call came in,
saying that human remains had been
discovered in the Vistula river
in the propeller of a pusher boat.
They wasted no resources or personnel
in investigating this case.
Second Lieutenant Sitarski
of Kraków's police headquarters
has confirmed that
human remains were discovered
on a pusher boat on January 7th.
[reporter] Where were they located?
[boat worker] That day,
they were found
right on top of this space.
Right here.
- [reporter] Floating in the water?
- Yes, the remains were floating.
Part was down there
and part was up above.
[Nowak] It had seemed
like any other day.
The deputy investigative director
came by
and said, "Listen, we've uncovered
something very strange.
Something was found
that looks like human skin."
[pulsing music playing]
The "Los" was stationed
somewhere around here.
This is how it all began.
[Sitarski] People combed the archives
for similar cases,
cases where,
due to an accident or something,
only the victim's skin was left.
Theories abounded,
such as if this was a tragic accident
or the result of suicide.
[Nowak] The recovered skin fragment
was sent to Forensic Medicine.
That's standard procedure.
But several days later
the situation changed drastically
because a doctor called us
and what he said was shocking.
The skin had been very meticulously
separated from the body
in a precise manner.
[Fuja] The skin was cut off
in a specific way.
According to our experts,
it was cut off in the form of a corset.
The nipples had been removed,
as had the neck and a piece of an ear.
It looked as though someone
was trying to wear the skin,
almost as if it were
a piece of clothing.
[tense percussive music playing]
[Szaszkiewicz]
We determined the skin was a woman's.
But how was it removed?
No one had ever seen
anything like this before.
I mean, removing the skin
off a victim's body?
It was a crime
no one had ever even conceived of,
and almost impossible to do.
Only a highly-skilled craftsman
could accomplish such a thing,
because skin is very tightly entwined
with the other structures of the body.
[tense percussive music continues]
We've seen such acts in films
like The Silence of the Lambs
but even there,
the man would kill a woman
and then remove her skin
piece by piece.
What we found was one piece
in the back and one in the front.
The perpetrator apparently wanted
to wear it like a sweater
or a body suit.
[whispering] Holy Immortal One,
please have mercy on us
and on the whole world.
[whispered prayer continues]
[Sitarski] Our first order
was searching the Vistula river.
We searched around the barrages
and the remaining body parts
were recovered.
[Fuja] More body parts
were found in the vicinity
of the hydroelectric plant,
two gluteus maximus
and a muscle fragment.
I learned about this case
through a female coworker.
This case really shook women
in particular.
The Cracovians started to suspect
that it could be a serial killer
and there would be more victims.
[eerie drone playing]
[reporter]
The remains were recovered
from this stretch of the Vistula
over one week,
and although any further information
was classified,
rumors spread that police
had also pulled from the water
an entire human skin
removed from its body.
The prosecutors stated that they are
currently investigating this case.
Several pieces of human flesh
were uncovered.
Is one of them of human skin?
Several pieces of a human body.
In Kraków,
there was something of a panic.
I was afraid too, of course.
Absolutely terrified.
My female friends were afraid
to go out after dark,
to go near the Vistula.
In Kraków there was really
this atmosphere of utter anxiety
and fear,
considering that the perpetrator
was still on the loose
and no one knew
when he was going to strike again.
[Fuja] Police checked
the missing persons list
to try to identify the victim.
[brisk orchestral theme music]
This is what the 23-year-old student
looked like when she went missing.
She left her house
on November 12th last year
and no one has seen her since.
We've learned that two days earlier,
she was seen with a man
near the iconic bridge
on the banks of the Vistula.
[Fuja] Height, 170 centimeters.
Blonde hair, green eyes.
She was wearing
a hooded corduroy jacket in navy blue
with a blue turtleneck, black pants
and black lacquered boots.
She also had a black leather backpack.
[distant voices of children playing]
[Dagmara] I went to primary school
with Kasia in the 96th in Kraków.
Both of us lived in Olsza.
We met at school.
We spent a lot of time hanging out
at each other's homes.
We were rather quiet
compared to the rest of our class.
Our classmates
were much more dynamic and colorful.
We used to call Kasia "Czinka",
a diminutive of her surname,
because there were
other Kasias in the class, too.
My mother called me one day,
very upset.
She had seen an announcement
saying that Kasia was missing.
There was a manhunt.
Our phones were ringing off the hook.
[Kasia's mother] Kasia is
a student of Religious Studies
at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
Outside of her studies,
Kasia likes to spend her spare time
listening to rock music,
reading speculative fiction
and watching movies.
She also enjoys
hiking in the mountains
and we would take frequent vacations
to mountain regions,
often spending our holidays there.
We would visit the Tatra mountains
and Zakopane
as well as Silesian Beskids.
[typewriter clicking]
[Sitarski] The day she went missing,
Katarzyna was supposed
to meet her mother.
They'd had an appointment
with a therapist whose office
was located in Nowa Huta.
But Katarzyna never made it
to that appointment.
[clock ticking]
[tense music playing]
[Frątczak] Theories that the victim
could be Katarzyna Zowada
started to abound in January 1999.
In a first for Poland,
the decision was made
to perform
the nation's first DNA test.
This was a complete novelty
at the time.
[Fuja] The DNA was retrieved
from Katarzyna's hairbrush.
[tense piano music builds]
The DNA test proved
beyond a shadow of a doubt
that the skin did belong to Katarzyna,
our missing university student.
On top of everything,
all of us, her loved ones,
had to deal with the knowledge
that somewhere in Kraków
there might be someone
who managed to commit
such a horrible crime.
There was also Kasia's mother
waiting in vain
for justice to be served
to the person responsible
for her daughter's death.
[bell chiming]
We focused our efforts
on piecing together
a full picture of her life.
Her habits, her routines,
what she had been doing
immediately before she went missing.
To profile a perpetrator,
look at the victim.
Profiling is a methodology
that allows us to establish
theories about the perpetrator
based on what one can,
without actually knowing them
in any real depth,
establish about them.
[wind blows softly]
Katarzyna suffered from depression
due to her father's death.
They were very close.
It was on a mountain trip with her
that her father suffered an accident
that permanently disabled him
and eventually led to his death.
[Fuja] She was aware
that he was dying.
Testimonies
from people who knew her
said she blamed herself
for his death.
In her final year, even her mother
found her growing even more distant.
[Sitarski]
Apparently she had stopped
showing up for class altogether.
The prevailing theory was
that she had recently met a man
who had
something to do with her death.
[chiming]
Her mother was
a rather emotionally distant person
so it's easy to presume
that mother and daughter
had a similarly distant relationship
as well.
It feels almost inevitable.
I think Kasia actually was holding on
to more than just one secret.
It could be that Kasia
was hiding things from her mother
as many young women do,
such as that she'd recently met a man.
It makes sense that she wouldn't
volunteer that information.
Right before she went missing
she got her hair dyed.
[eerie piano music playing]
Her closest friends testified
that she liked this boy
and would like to date him.
According to them, the two of them
had met at the record fair.
[jazzy bassline playing]
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,
this is Jerzy Skarżyński
bringing another night
devoted to music history.
We'll start off with a band
whose music could be described
as detached from reality
or psychedelic.
Some claim it evokes sensations
equivalent to those experienced
after you ingest
certain illicit substances.
Simply said, it makes you feel
like you're tripping.
This is the way I'd put it.
The Grateful Dead!
["Wharf Rat"
by Grateful Dead plays]
[song continues in headphones]
[Budzyn]
I was reminded of this band by a girl
who came in looking
for their records.
[song continues in headphones]
Each time she looked
at one of their albums
I'd see immense joy in her face.
I attended the Pod Przewiązką Fair
where I would buy and sell records.
They would hold it on a weekly basis.
Tons of people with tons of records.
If someone happened
to be looking for something specific,
I had enough contacts
that I was always able
to dig up something interesting.
There they are.
It wasn't just for business.
Sure, some people focused on selling
but those were very few.
The fair really consisted
mostly of true enthusiasts, real fans.
It could very well be
that Kasia connected
with some of their regulars.
This lead
was very thoroughly looked into.
[Budzyn] I found it so endearing
how into this kind of music she was.
After all, we're talking
about music from the late '60s,
not the kind of music
her generation usually listens to.
I think mostly, she was introduced
to this music by someone else,
someone close to her.
[Skarżyński on radio]
Coming up next, the listeners' hour.
Your favorite tunes,
only here at RMFFM.
These are selected by Kasia.
Tell us what we've got.
[Kasia over phone] A piece by Genesis.
"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight."
[Fuja] I remember this.
She called the radio station
and won some contest or something.
[Skarżyński] On a desert island,
if you could take one album by Genesis,
would it be one
with Gabriel or Collins?
[Kasia] Gabriel, for sure.
- Can I give a shout-out to someone?
- We don't normally, but go ahead.
I'd like to give a shout-out
to Anka, Ula
and everyone at Third-D
at my high school.
[Skarżyński] Done.
Listening to Genesis. Thanks.
[Kasia] Thanks.
Can you tell me
where my country lies ♪
Said the unicorn
to its true love's eyes ♪
It lies with me
cried the Queen of Maybe ♪
For her merchandise
he traded in his prize ♪
[rumble of thunder]
[Fuja] Only four months
after the woman's remains were found
the result of a second crime
was discovered.
[Sitarski]
I've seen many crime scenes.
Let me tell you,
it never looks like that.
[Fuja] These kind of images haunt you.
[sinister orchestral music builds]
[Spokesman] Details are coming in
regarding this horrific murder.
We know it was committed
inside the secluded house.
Inside this house,
officers found human remains,
this time the body of a man.
[Frątczak] On May 31st, 1999,
one of the prosecutors
gets a phone call
saying she must go
to this small village.
It turned out
that in the building's cellar,
the corpse of a man was found
hanging by his feet.
His body was cloaked in a red bag.
The tendons of both knees were slashed
and he had been decapitated.
In a shocking twist,
his son had removed the skin
from his father's face,
placed it over his own face
like a mask,
and started walking around
wearing this mask made of human skin.
The murder committed in this house
could be connected
to the case involving the remains
of a young woman in January.
He walked right out of the house.
The skin mask looked so realistic
that his grandfather on the porch
didn't even notice it.
He thought the father was leaving,
not his grandson
wearing his father's face.
I called the police
who came and took him.
[Sitarski] It's alarming
to know that the perpetrator
of such a grisly crime
is in the vicinity.
Although instructed not to,
we jumped in the car
and went looking for this man.
On the left side of the road
there was a bus stop.
[tires screech]
[handbrake clicks]
[tense percussive music playing]
[Sitarski] The grandfather had told us
that his grandson's head
was shaved at the top
so we were 100 percent sure
it was him.
[Womaczko]
It was like a bomb going off.
You feel insane.
But after a couple of hours,
the adrenaline dies down.
I'm from the North Caucasus
originally.
We have these ancient customs.
His name is Włodymir Womaczko,
a former med student
who switched to psychology
at Jagiellonian University
where Katarzyna Zowada was studying,
so he and Katarzyna
probably knew each other.
Everyone here was convinced
it had to be him.
Our guy.
The one that skins people.
One last thing.
Within the cellar of this house,
police discovered an area
where cement was poured.
Officers are not ruling out
the possibility of another body.
[Frątczak] The odds of two
such similar skinnings to occur
in an area as small as Kraków,
within such a short time
is practically nonexistent.
[Szaszkiewicz] A search like this
had never been conducted.
The top layer of earth was removed
from the garden and sifted through
in order to hopefully find
any trace of Kasia.
They found nothing.
After every conversation
we had had with him,
our case against him weakened.
I agreed to this interview
to set the record straight.
They were talking about some sort
of sexually motivated murder
and I said,
"What do I have to do with that?"
"I don't know her name or anything."
I was the expert psychiatrist
on this case,
assessing the level
of the perpetrator's sanity.
Not only was he examined
on an outpatient basis,
he was also placed
under psychiatric observation.
We performed
a battery of tests and
conducted countless interviews.
We learned the motives
for his actions.
Despite our initial instincts
or let's say our conjectures
based on the fact
that we were all convinced
that such a deed could not
be committed by a sane person,
after detailed analysis, it turned out
his motive
was something else entirely.
Because yes,
Womaczko had killed his father
but he then acted in a way
which can be categorized
as closer to a ritual.
It mimicked ritualistic customs
performed by his ancestry.
By making a mask
of his father's facial skin,
by wearing it
over his own face as he did,
he was actually expressing contempt
for his father in an artistic sense.
He viewed his father as someone
who had egregiously wronged his mother
by breaking his marriage vows
and leaving her for another woman.
This was the reason
for which he killed his father.
Everyone on the planet
is capable of killing.
Let's say 99 percent of people would
in the right circumstances.
It's just not something most people
ever learn about themselves.
It doesn't seem to me that Włodymir
would lie about his lack of connection
to Katarzyna and her mother.
The search for Katarzyna's killer
started anew.
[discordant piano music playing]
[Fuja] A resident of Kazimierz
popped up in the investigation.
This area is close to the place
where Katarzyna's remains were found.
A local police officer had
thorough knowledge about his citizens
so a list was then drawn up
of anyone who could be the killer.
One of the names on the list
was Robert Janczewski.
[Fuja] I had met him once before
but just in passing.
I lived one street over from him.
To be honest,
he seemed like a weirdo.
- [Fuja] Let me help.
- Fuck you.
He was always talking to himself.
He'd shoulder-check you
on the sidewalk.
People knew
he lived in a different world.
But that was Kazimierz for you.
Robert always took
the same routes
to church,
to his barber.
He liked to have his hair
very neatly cut.
The investigators are classifying
this crime as a sex crime,
so they're searching for men
who are either previously convicted
or have been suspected
of assaulting women.
Robert Janczewski's police file
is quite extensive,
including reports
from women he's harassed,
from women he's stalked,
pestered, followed.
A neighbor who lived across the street
reported that Robert was following her
and watching her through the window.
That the moment she would get
on the train, Robert would too.
She understandably
became very afraid of him.
[Fuja] In his police file,
there are even reports he filed
against himself
after exposing himself in Błonia,
because voices in his head
had told him to undress.
My name is Jacek Matkowski.
I've been a doctor
and a psychotherapist
for many, many years.
I met Robert, I think,
in December of 1991,
after meeting with his father
at the facility
where Robert was a patient.
I was head of the community
mental health team
in Kraków's central district.
Robert's first stay
at a psychiatric clinic
lasted around five weeks.
This was January
to February of 1992.
During that time,
he was diagnosed with paranoia
and a mixed personality disorder,
which together met the diagnostic
criteria for schizophrenia.
[Góra] He was a very lonely man,
constantly rejected by women.
I learned this
from people who knew him
and who would interact with him.
[Fuja] They immediately conducted
a thorough search of his house.
Nothing was found.
His place was clean.
But his notebook was confiscated.
"His last confession,"
as the lead investigator put it.
And within this notebook,
accounts of his nightmares,
voices that would talk to him,
people in his dreams,
stories of intense remorse.
Those notes contained details
of a religious awakening
he'd experienced in December
of 1998, around the same time
that Katarzyna died.
[whispering] Have mercy upon us
and on the whole world
for the sake of his sorrowful passion.
Have mercy upon us
and on the whole world
for the sake of his sorrowful passion.
Have mercy upon us
and on the whole world
for the sake of his sorrowful passion.
The notebook also had
mysterious scribblings
that would just say, "Leather bag,
cattle, video booth, five women."
Makes you wonder.
The police decided to investigate
to see whether or not Robert had,
by any chance,
done a renovation
on his house recently.
[discordant piano music playing]
[Fuja] It turns out, he had.
[grunts]
According to the neighbors,
Robert was regularly seen
leaving with full plastic bags.
[man] He put on a coat
and disappeared.
Look, he's on a bike.
Where's Janusz?
Get in. Let's go.
He's turning left.
[honks horn]
There he is.
He's walking towards the coroner's.
[Fuja] Good.
I'll stop here.
[man] Don't drive so fast.
The hard proof simply wasn't there.
We had nothing which could
in any way
connect him to the murder.
Less than two years
after launching the investigation,
police were forced
to discontinue it.
It didn't halt
all operational proceedings
but I had stopped
personally working on this case.
[Fuja]
In 2017 the case was taken over
by Kraków's cold cases unit.
[Frątczak] It is a team created by
the police headquarters of Kraków,
whose primary objective was working
on unsolved crimes.
For years, the head of this department
was Bogdan Michalec.
He was also one of the first officers
to work on Katarzyna's case.
When the opportunity arose,
he reopened the investigation
because he'd never been able
to let it go.
I'm pleased to say
that this case has been reopened
due to its unique, unorthodox nature,
and because it's one of my main goals
to see that it's brought to trial.
From this point, he would be
spearheading the investigation
in order to solve the case.
[Michalec] The case was consulted
by a representative of the FBI.
It was he who said
this is the sole known example
in the world of a case
involving such a method of skinning.
From the start, there was
a significant difference
between Bogdan and I,
when it came to the case,
or even the way we liked to work.
I like to focus more
on clues and evidence.
Bogdan was more intuition-based.
He went off of his heart, his spirit.
Bogdan was convinced
that Robert was the perpetrator.
I did not share this conviction.
[reporter] Several days ago,
the investigation was reopened.
The reason is top secret.
Most likely, after 13 years,
police have managed to uncover
new evidence or new witnesses.
The main link
between Katarzyna and Robert
was that one of Robert's teachers
went to school with her father.
[tense music builds]
There was also the suspicion that,
knowing Katarzyna's father,
the teacher could have set the girl up
with his former student,
who he knew more closely.
[Fuja] Good morning!
[Szigmund] Good morning.
- For Mr. Szigmund?
- Yes.
- May we chat for a moment?
- Yes.
Let me say this.
I know Robert from school.
I know his father.
I used to know Zowada, Kasia's father.
Yes, she was the daughter
of my colleague, a fellow teacher.
I worked at the Technical High School
for Electrical Science in Nowa Huta.
He taught history.
- The father?
- Zowada.
- Kasia's father taught history?
- Yes, he was a good friend of mine.
I suspect this was
a recurring issue for Robert,
most likely
for as long as he can remember.
Namely, the desire
to meet someone, to connect.
This was an aspect of Robert's life
that he didn't exactly flaunt.
He was most likely embarrassed by it.
Robert was absolutely determined
to meet a woman,
to have a relationship.
He even placed personal ads
in Teletext.
He did get some replies from girls
and he would meet up with them.
[Józef] My name is Józef Janczewski.
Robert is my son.
I remember one girl who had arrived
to the date a little late.
Late by almost 15 minutes.
[rings bell]
And he said,
"15 minutes late? Disqualified!"
That's how all his relationships
with girls were.
He wasn't attractive.
For women, an attractive guy
is one who earns well,
who could even be bald.
An attractive guy
is one who dances well.
At attractive guy is tall, and so on.
But Robert?
He's none of those things.
Knowledge can certainly
be attractive to many women.
Like me.
I for one can be overly chatty,
but I pride myself
on also being very well read.
Talking only about religion?
Most women will probably
not find that attractive.
I'll admit, there's something about
his look that can be off-putting.
There's this stare in his eyes,
as if he's constantly
scrutinizing you, assessing you,
probing you.
[tense percussive music playing]
Robert was like a volcano
on the verge of eruption.
He would slam doors, make loud noises.
No wonder people were afraid of him.
Especially when you look at his
physique on top of everything else.
Since the mid-90s, it had been clear
to everyone who knew him
that he was both a strong
and well-built man.
[Frątczak] As well as the evidence,
there was also
an opinion from an expert
that Katarzyna had actually
been tortured and beaten
prior to her death.
It would then be by someone
experienced in martial arts.
[tense percussive music playing]
[yelling]
[Frątczak] Robert was indeed
practicing bodybuilding
and martial arts.
[breathing heavily]
[Farynski] I used to work at the gym
run by Vishka Venka.
It was an iconic place.
Robert was peculiar and not everyone
wanted to talk to him,
but I was the receptionist so my job
was literally to talk to people.
I had to tolerate him.
That's how our acquaintance began.
When it came to girls,
whenever he would talk to them,
he would immediately
be shut down every time.
Because of this
he got a bit of a reputation,
because someone
would always come to us and complain
about Robert accosting them.
He wasn't accosting them.
He just wanted to talk to a woman.
[Nowak] A psychological portrait
was put together on Robert
by a team of experts.
He checked every box
when it came to the profile:
his age, his education,
his unique skills.
Not to mention the fact
that he even had experience
working with animals.
I'm thinking about
skinning, here.
[liquid flowing]
[discordant piano music playing]
I had gone through
a lot of lab workers
before I hired Robert Janczewski.
He turned out to be
a very diligent employee.
He had to clean the cages
and feed the animals.
True, he was not
a very cheerful person, so to speak.
He was always serious.
He would often ask
his female colleagues
for advice
on how to be liked by girls.
One colleague asked Robert
if he ever exercised.
To prove his strength,
he supposedly decided
to demonstrate a Nelson hold on her.
She immediately ran to me
and told me what he had done.
I remember clearly saying to him,
"Robert,
you only ever touch a woman
if and when she lets you."
[rock music playing]
There's a deposition by Robert's
coworker at the Institute of Zoology.
What we learned
is that Robert allegedly
invited her to his home.
She wanted to take a look
at a stereo system
because she wanted one
for her child.
Robert offered to show her his.
According to that woman,
the second she entered his apartment,
Robert locked the door behind her
and said,
"I'm not letting you out of here."
[rattling handle]
[woman crying]
They found out he'd done
his mandatory military service
in the morgue of a Kraków hospital.
Witnesses recounted
their experiences of him,
including that he'd participated
in autopsies
and seemed very interested in how
to drain a woman's body of her blood.
Those who performed the autopsies
would hold a "Miss Shelf" context
to decide which corpse was prettiest.
[Dąbrowski] One of Robert's colleagues
said that he had killed those rabbits.
It was unnecessary.
The colleague lost that fur,
and that was the reason
why Robert was then terminated.
[discordant piano music playing]
[Fuja] Robert was brought up
by his grandparents.
It was tough a tough upbringing.
His grandmother
was extremely catholic.
She would force him
to go to church
and would dress him
in a sackcloth.
His grandparents beat him.
They brought up
all their children this way.
Robert's father had also
been subjected to corporal punishment,
and they did the same
to their grandson.
If he was caught
not paying attention in church,
the grandparents,
holding his hand,
would crush his fingers
between theirs
to force him to behave
according to their expectations.
If someone had ever asked me,
"If your father beat you,
if you were brought up
in such unpleasant conditions,
why would you give your son away
to be raised by your parents?"
I would tell them,
"Because of discipline."
Do you know
where the word discipline comes from?
The word discipline
is actually etymologically derived
from the Latin word for a rod.
As in, rod of discipline.
Discipline!
And what does one do with a rod?
Sometimes you need to reprimand a kid
by giving them a slap here and there.
My father beat me
and for good reason.
Here we have a man charged
with making overt threats,
to the extent
that is punishable by law.
This man is 35,
lives with his mother,
suffers from mental illness,
he's aggressive towards his neighbors
and towards women.
No one knows how he behaves
when alone.
The neighbors, who had been hearing
a lot of rumors about him,
say that he recently experienced
profound metanoia,
that he'd become
fanatically religious,
prostrating himself in church.
The Robert Janczewski before 1998
and after 1998
are two very different people.
The police started to form
a clearer
mental picture of the suspect,
one who fits
into this crime perfectly.
[Janczewski] For the sake
of his sorrowful passion
have mercy on us
and on the whole world.
For the sake of his sorrowful passion
have mercy on us
and on the whole world.
For the sake
of his sorrowful passion
[pulsing music playing]
[Fuja] Robert behaves in a way
which fits the police's suspicions
so they think
that it must be him.
Janczewski stated during an interview
that he came in, in order to learn
more about Katarzyna's murder.
He repeatedly claimed
to be interested in the case
not out of guilt,
but because the case
had particularly affected him.
He added that the police
should look into Leszek L,
who used to skin animals,
and not just focus
their efforts on him.
Who would be so emotionally attached
to the victim,
if not the perpetrator?
[Fuja] They played
a TV program for him.
When Katarzyna's mother
came on screen,
Janczewski knelt down before the TV
and started kissing her hands.
He stated he couldn't
have killed Katarzyna
because his remorse
would be so strong
that he would have had
to commit suicide.
Sounds like
the perfect murder suspect.
[Fuja] One of the other pieces
of incriminating evidence,
albeit circumstantial,
is that after Katarzyna's death
and after he'd been flagged
as a potential suspect,
for some reason,
he kept on visiting the girl's grave.
Why would a complete stranger
with no connection to Katarzyna
visit the grave of the girl
he's suspected of killing?
[Frątczak] The investigators decided
they had so much evidence
that the only thing left to do
was conduct another search
of Robert's home.
With all this circumstantial evidence,
the Prosecutor's office
decided to arrest Robert
in a way that deliberately drew
a lot of attention, in October 2017.
[upbeat jingle plays]
With us is Michał Fuja, co-director
of a documentary for Superwizjer TVN .
- Good morning.
- Morning.
Tell us what made you
follow Robert J's trail.
You're asking about the inner workings
of a journalist's job.
[Fuja]
Look, the door's already opened.
The gray one.
There's someone near the entrance,
to stop him from getting in.
There he is.
[siren blaring]
There was an investigation
at the same time.
Yes.
[male host] Was there collaboration?
You were both working on this case.
Your documentary, the police case
[Fuja] There are people claiming
it was staged. It wasn't.
The prosecutor
didn't pick up the phone,
but the fact that he didn't,
plus the frenzy,
made us realize
something must be happening.
The case had been open
for 19 years.
Anyone could participate
in the investigation.
But now, suddenly,
no one wants to talk
because it's the final stretch.
Please notify my mother.
The police and prosecutors claimed
to have ironclad proof of his guilt.
I believed he might be the perpetrator.
[tense, pulsing music builds]
I, Robert Janczewski,
had nothing whatsoever to do
with the horrible crime committed
against Katarzyna Zowada.
I did not know this person
and have never met her in my life.
[Frątczak] There are four cameras
in the footage of Robert's arrest.
It was an instant lightbulb moment.
[Nowak] A clairvoyant helped draw
the sketch of the perpetrator.
[Frątczak] We became convinced
it was all wrong.
[Fuja] How had Robert gotten
mixed up in this case?
Sack up!
- Crouch. Cough.
- [Robert coughs]
[Robert] I had a plan to break
a bottle and slice open my artery.
You could have stopped this,
Mr. Prosecutor!
[glass shatters]
[discordant piano music playing]