First Serial Killer Who Murdered Across Europe?
I never thought about posting about this, because I found it too personal, but yesterday I googled this case for the first time and was quite surprised what an asshole this guy named Dariusz Pawel Kotwica was. In 2015 this man brutally murdered my boyfriends unkle Bo in sweden by stabbing him. At first we all thought he was killed for his money, because Bo was a typical selfmade millionair in his 80s, still working for his company - but on the other hand he never lived in luxury. My boyfriend always adored him because he was a weird old man living in one of Gotenborgs richest neighbourhoods in a little run-down cottage. According to my BF many neighbours disliked his ugly shed that disturbed the beautiful view to Goteborgs yacht harbour. Kotwica only found 200 Euros in the house when he left and continued his journey trough Europe. What made this deadly robbery very different, was that the killer left some blood written latin phrases at the crime scene.
Experts said that Kotwica, 29, could be the first serial killer to have struck across Europe, taking advantage of its open borders to evade police and find new victims in six countries over several years. He was already sought by forces across Europe after the double murder of a married couple in Vienna a view months later. The bodies of Gerhard Hintermeier and his wife Erna were discovered at their home by relatives (which was also the case with Bo). They had been bludgeoned and stabbed several times while written in brown paint on the woman’s naked body was the Latin phrase ‘tantum ergo’ meaning ‘only then’. Before killing them, he also had raped Erna.
Police identified Kotwica by forensic evidence left at the crime scene that was shared across Europe under the Prum data-sharing scheme. He not only made immediately a comprehensive confession to the murder of the elderly couple and admitted he ‘raped the dying old lady’ but also revealed he had committed another murder just weeks earlier in Sweden. He also told police of his ‘joy’ at torturing, claiming he was urged to kill by inner voices.
According to Austrian police, Kotwica also admitted an ‘attempted homicide after a shoplifting’ in Salzburg in 2012, while records show he had committed grievous bodily harm in the Netherlands in 2011 and burgled a shop in Germany. There have also been reports of possible murders in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. The police report goes on: ‘It seems that he stay several years also in UK. It would be very surprising for us if he have [sic] not committed there serious crimes again.’
