Unbelievable.History of murder in the Ultimo boutique - News

The text was originally published on August 10 this year in Onet. We remind him in connection with the broadcast of TVN24's "Superwizjer" report, which raises the same issue. In early September, seven years before the end of her sentence, Beata Pasik was released early and left prison.

Regional Court in Warsaw, July 2005

It has been almost eight years since the murder of Daniel and the shooting of his wife Anna. The tragedy happened in the evening of December 16, 1997 in the Ultimo boutique in Warsaw at Nowy Świat Street. Another court decision is about to be handed down in this case.

Beata takes care of her appearance. She is a slim, attractive blonde with short hair and blue eyes. Barely in my thirties. She goes to court hoping to be acquitted a third time. She doesn't know yet that she's about to hear that she's guilty of murder and attempted murder. That they would put her in handcuffs and straight from the court to prison, and later appeals, cassations and requests for clemency would do nothing.

She's been through this before. When they arrested her two days after the crime, she spent almost two years in custody. She left after the first sentence, because the court found her innocent. The second trial brought the same conclusion.

It is rare for a court to acquit someone of manslaughter twice and then find them guilty a third time based on the same evidence.

But that's the case here.

- I didn't kill it! Beata screams. She cries when the presiding judge, Judge Aniela Bańkowicz, announces that she is guilty. The judge herself has a different opinion, but she was outvoted. No way out. He sentences Beata to 25 years in prison.

Beata is desperate. She pleads with Anna, "Tell them it wasn't me!"

Women know each other. They worked in the same boutique for a couple of months. They were at their weddings. For several years, however, their relationship was exclusively professional.

Anna does not look at Beata. He hears her crying. She is unfazed. He points to it from the beginning. She waited a long time for such a verdict.

Photo: Bartosz Bobkowski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl Beata after the verdict in 2005.

The day of the murder

Małgorzata looks at her watch. It's after 8pm and Anna still isn't home. She did not come for her daughter, who has been feverish for two days. When they talked two hours ago, her sister told her that she would be back at 8 p.m. if Daniel came to pick her up. Or a little later, if she walks back alone on the tram.

Anna's sister calls Daniel on the mobile. "Subscriber is temporarily unavailable". Trying to connect to it every 15 minutes. With no effect. She's starting to get worried. Only at 10 pm he calls Ultimo, but no one answers. So he dials the number of Hubert, Daniel's brother. It connects with him at some point. She says Anna and Daniel didn't come home.

Hubert and his wife Natalia, who works with Anna and saw her at 7.30 p.m. when she brought her the proceeds from the second store, are going to Nowy Świat to see if anything has happened.

A quarter past 10pm they park near the boutique. The light is on in the shop. The front and back doors, with metal handles instead of handles, are locked. The alarm is not activated. They knock and call. Silence. Anna and Daniel must be inside. Daniel's orange Audi with a tennis ball on the tow bar is parked in the yard. Hubert touches the bonnet, the car's engine is cold.

To find out what happened, they need to get inside. Hubert and Natalia go first to a nearby security agency. The worker there knows nothing. There are also no store keys. With them, he checks on the computer that the alarm has not actually been triggered.

They return to the shop. Hubert calls Wieslaw. He is an employee of the tailor's workshop adjacent to the boutique. He has been on vacation since December. Both premises have the same owner, Mr. M. Wiesław brings one of the employees to the place, who has the keys to the tailor's premises, because she knows that there are spare keys to Ultimo there. They will allow you to enter the boutique.

Around midnight, they turn the key in the lock twice. They open the front door of the store. They go inside.

At the top, everything is fine. Natalia walks over to the winding metal stairs that lead down. As he climbs a few steps, he sees Daniel lying on his stomach on the floor between the counter and the stairs. He doesn't move. There's a blood stain next to his head. She's getting weak, she can't go any further.

Photo: Press materialsStairs in the Ultimo boutique

Daniel is dead. Someone fired two shots at him. The first in the chest, the second, finishing, in the back. He also has a small wound on his head and a laceration on his right hand, as if he had hit something hard with his fist. Like he was fighting. He is wearing a blue jacket buttoned up to the neck and a black and green scarf.

The traces of blood lead to the second room where Anna is lying on her back. She too had been shot twice, in the neck and left arm, right next to the breast. Blood flows from her mouth. He has two teeth knocked out - the police will later find them at the bathroom door. I groan. She's badly injured. But I am alive.

An ambulance will soon take her to the hospital where she will undergo surgery. She is also wearing a jacket, a brown double-breasted jacket that has a torn pillowcase. When Anna drove to work, the jacket was intact.

Photo: Press materialsTraces of blood found in one of the lower rooms of the boutique

*

It's after midnight. The police and the prosecutor descend on the boutique. The investigation begins. Forensic technicians quickly determine: there are no signs of a break-in in the store. Whoever was shooting must have been let in from the back room or entered through an open door. And when he went out, he locked it and kept the light on.

Anna's keys are nowhere to be found. The killer or killers must have taken them. There is also no gun from which the shots were fired. This one, like the stolen keys, will never be found.

No one secures footprints.

Investigators are questioning witnesses all night long. It is from their relationship that they get to know Anna and Daniel better. In the protocols, they quickly write down the name: Beata.

*

Photo: Bartosz Bobkowski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl Anna

Anna is slim and blonde. Quiet. Calm. Pretty secretive. She is 24 years old, married young to Daniel, who is two years older. They've known each other since school years. Soon their daughter was born.

She works in a women's clothing boutique at Nowy Świat 36. Her boss appreciates her. She entrusts the duties of the manager of all three Ultimo stores. Also those at Nowy Świat 42 and Świętokrzyska 20, which he runs together with Mr. D. Employees know about the owners' conflict. They are divided into two camps. The owners compete with each other. Each of them sells their own goods in the shop. A month ago, they had a fight.

The boutique at Nowy Świat 36 is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. This is where the proceeds from the other two stores go every day. After closing, Anna counts the money, then hides it in a metal box locked with a key. After the murder, the box is empty, there are only two pens inside. About 6,000 were stolen. zloty. Investigators take the scent from the box. This could be the killer's trail.

Daniel has a petite build. He is short. He runs his own security company. He installs alarms. But he also works in another agency, which actually exists to this day, where he is responsible for security in one of the supermarkets in Janki near Warsaw. Recently, he applied twice for the lease of a parking lot in Ząbki near Warsaw, but his offer was rejected. A few days ago, he won a tender for the installation of a security system.

He comes to the boutique quite often to pick up Anna. She even suggests to her boss to hire him at her place. Daniel doesn't want to because he has higher aspirations. After the murder, investigators find a yellow baseball bat in his car. They are also on the trail of counterfeit notes.

Beata, who comes from Ostrówek, has girlish beauty. Like Anna, she also got married young. Her relationship only lasted a year and a half. Her husband cheated on her with a friend from work and left her. Now she lives with Piotr, who is trying to join the police. He has already submitted the documents.

She has been working in Ultimo for six years as a shop assistant, currently in a boutique at Świętokrzyska Street. Rumors reach Anna that Beata is stealing. He organizes a provocation: he sends a substitute client, in fact a new employee whom Beata does not know. He tells her to buy pants. Beata sells her goods, but she does not charge it to the cash register and does not give her a receipt.

For M., this is reason enough to dismiss her in the absence of a partner who is abroad. Beata's translations do nothing. On December 8, a fight breaks out in the store, and the police intervene. The note from this event is made only on December 17, the day after the tragedy.

We recommend: "Mom, the police will kill me." How the case of Igor Stachowiak was swept under the carpet

*

Anna survived. She's out of surgery. He's still asleep. The police take turns guarding her. Among them, the same ones who had been summoned to a brawl in Ultimo eight days earlier.

The hospital is already buzzing with rumors that a woman shot at Anna.

The lights in the ward where he lies are off. The police explain this with the safety of Anna, other patients and doctors. "Because there may be an attempt to reach."

Now the most important thing will be what she says when she wakes up.

Anna's truth

Anna regains consciousness around 22, the day after the crime. He opens his eyes. The police are pressing you to talk to her as soon as possible. When the doctor gives the green light, two inexperienced policemen take the testimonies. This is their first kill. They have trouble keeping track of everything. They themselves will be interrogated only a year and a half later.

Anna says that Beata Kamińska-Pasik shot at her and her husband. She is 99 percent sure of it. He doesn't know that Daniel is dead yet. That she was widowed.

At this point, investigators stop investigating other threads. They only focus on Beata. Her apartment is watched by the police all night. At dawn, counter-terrorists stop her and her boyfriend.

*

Anna was not supposed to be at work that day because her daughter was sick. But the boss called and asked her to come. She agreed. She went to the boutique by tram. It was freezing cold and her little Fiat wouldn't start. Nothing foreshadowed the tragedy that was about to happen just after the store closed.

*

Anna's testimony has many gaps and discrepancies, it is not consistent. She is alone when Daniel arrives to pick her up, some 10-15 minutes after her sister-in-law has left. He's behind the counter at the bottom of the store. Counts money. She claims to be without a jacket, although she was wearing one when found. When the husband goes to the toilet, he hears a bell or a knock on the door from the back room. Beata is behind them.

He lets her in. They go down. Anna does not remember how Beata was dressed and what she said. What she does remember is the gun - long silver barrel and black handle - which Beata pulls out when they're downstairs. He shoots her first, then her husband, who was upstairs. There are quite a few shots fired.

Further testimonies: It was Beata. Anna has trouble remembering when she let her in. She remembers that Beata did not undress, but she does not remember the color of her clothes or whether she had a handbag. They went down. First, however, she shot Daniel, who ran out of the downstairs toilet, because there is no toilet upstairs, and then to her. To him once or twice. Two or three to her. She's convinced it's revenge for being fired from her job.

Photo: Press materialsOne of the rooms in the Ultimo boutique

Anna does not remember how she lost two teeth. How her blood got on the phone that was on the counter. How did she end up in the other room where she was found even though all the shots had been fired in the next room. Instead, he remembers how he shouts: "Daniel, she has a gun" and Beata's words when she aims at him: "You won't take this gun from me, because I paid too much for it." A shot is fired after them.

He says he knows the difference between a pistol and a revolver. It was definitely a gun. He is wrong. The expert examines the bullets secured at the site. The killer was firing a revolver. He gives two most likely models. The kind used by secret services, the police or security agencies.

When Anna feels blood coming out of her throat or breast area, she collapses. The image blurs. he's leaving. He wakes up in the hospital. She does not remember a doctor in the room when she was questioned by the police.

*

The doctor who lets the policemen in Anna does not hear their conversation. Questions and Answers. She doesn't know when Anna told them who shot her. He remembers that during the interrogation a warden came. Later, after talking to another policeman, the doctor signs the report herself. But he doesn't read it properly.

After the interrogation, which according to the doctor takes many hours with breaks, one of the police officers takes a note. On my knee. He will later say in court that while he was talking to Anna himself, the other policeman was behind the door in the corridor. Anna said that Beata was with the boy, but he did not go inside.

Except that he did not write down in the note that Beata was with her boyfriend. He missed it. He comments: "Apparently, due to the passage of time, I got a little confused." He also claims that he only spoke to Anna once. The note says twice.

The second policeman claims that both of them were at the interrogation and asked questions. The doctor, probably a man, stood to one side. He went in and out of the room. Anna was to tell them that Beata was inside and that there was probably a man standing in front of the shop. That the first shots were fired at her. After them came Daniel. He is unable to explain why his colleague wrote down Beata's two-letter surname in the note, since - as he claims - Anna gave only one of them.

The day before New Year's Eve, Anna is discharged home. He will later say in court that he does not remember talking to the police at the hospital.

Beth's version

The three dogs indicate that the scent in the box comes from Beth. However, this does not mean that Beata touched her, that she was in a boutique. Her scent might as well have been carried over with the money that passed through her hands and ended up in the box. It's weak evidence.

Apart from Anna's testimony, the investigators have nothing on Beata. There are no traces of gunpowder or blood on her skin or clothes. Nothing in the bag either. She definitely wasn't holding a gun in it. No traces that are characteristic of gunshots.

There are no injuries on her body.

*

Photo: Arkadiusz Ścichocki / Agencja Wyborcza.pl Candles before Ultimo, 1997.

Beata spends the morning at home with Piotr. Then there's the tanning bed and a visit to the lawyer. Advice on dismissal. After that, they go to Piotr's mother and stepfather, where they spend the evening. Just before 10 p.m., they walk into a nearby flower shop and order bows for Christmas. Before returning home, they go to Piotr's cousin to get some paper to write the lawsuits. While he goes upstairs for a moment, she waits in the car.

She finds out about the tragedy in Ultimo the next day while watching TV.

After the arrest of Beata and Piotr, the police search their apartment. Calls on command. He interrogates.

Beata doesn't admit to anything. She says she was never in the boutique where the crime took place. “Anna is lying, but I don't know why. Maybe she's afraid of something, that's why she pointed at me."

The policemen press Piotr. They tell him that Anna survived and pinpointed the culprit. That he is making false statements. They will kill his entire family. And if he tells the truth, they'll let him go free.

They know he wants to be a policeman. Already during the arrest, one of the interrogators puts a walkie-talkie in his pocket. Then she looks at him: "You're going to be our boy, then wear it."

They also tell him that they are missing some puzzle pieces. He is one of them.

Gives in. He changes his testimony. He says that after visiting the lawyer he went home, and Beata had a case in the city. She returned at 10 p.m. When they watch the footage of the crime on TV the next day, Beata cries. She admits she did it.

When he signs the protocol, they drive him home. Soon after, she goes to her parents by bus. There, a staff member from the police calls him. He's been accepted into service, he can start work on Monday. But Piotr doesn't want to be a policeman anymore.

Three months later, she backs out of everything. He says earlier confessions were coerced from him. The cops threatened him. But they didn't do anything to him. His mother and stepfather have confirmed Beata's version from the beginning. If she spent the evening with them, she couldn't be in Ultimo and she couldn't kill. Their testimony is considered unreliable by the prosecutor.

Piotr, his mother and stepfather are accused of making false statements. Beata is left without an alibi.

Innocent. Innocent. Guilty

The perpetrator is standing at the bottom of the store by the winding stairs as he shoots Daniel. This one is at the entrance to the corridor with fitting rooms. She wants to cover up. He raises his left hand in defense. falls. The killer walks about two meters toward the counter where Anna stands, leaning slightly forward. He shoots her twice from here. The first time in the neck. The bullet ricochets. It bounces off the floor and hits the wall. On the second shot, Anna gets hit in the hand. Finally, the killer finishes off the fallen Daniel. In the back. He's standing over him from his feet.

When determining the order of shots, the expert who gives his opinion in the case takes into account Anna's version, the position of Daniel's body and the place where the bullets were found.

The revolver is not light. It weighs about 1.5-2 kg. The expert has no doubt - the killer had nerves of steel. He had to pull the trigger before. He could do it. All four shots were on target.

This looks like the work of a pro.

*

Beata is being examined by expert psychiatrists and a psychologist. They are of the opinion that the act she is accused of seems alien to her personality. "Aggression is not her way of resolving tensions and conflicts."

There is also an opinion about Anna and her testimony. Specialists do not see any tendency to fantasize and confabulate in her statements.

In the first two trials, Beata is found not guilty. The court finds the testimony of Anna and the police officers unreliable. One of the justifications: “By testifying that Beata is the perpetrator, Anna is not lying. In this way he recreates »his truth«”.

So why does Anna point to Beata? The court offers three options. Because she did remember who was shooting. Because she's convinced that only she could do it. Because it was suggested to her.

Third process. Beth is guilty. The court that sentences her considers that Anna's first testimony is the most detailed, credible and best reflects the course of events.

*

Only judge Aniela Bańkowicz is of a different opinion. He points out that if Anna were to be the victim, the perpetrator would have observed the area before entering the store. He would have made sure she was alone. And it wasn't. The killer entered just after Daniel arrived. So maybe he was the target and not his wife. In the end, he was "seen".

He also draws attention to Daniel's injuries. On the abrasions of the right hand. It is not known how this wound was created. Certainly not from a fall. Anna also never explained how she lost two teeth. Maybe she doesn't remember. Or maybe he wants to hide the real course of events.

According to her, it is impossible to determine whether Anna really saw Beata or heard a conversation about her in the hospital before pointing her out. “Each of these versions is equally likely. There is no evidence to support one of them."

Omitted threads

It is clear to the investigators that Beata is the killer. They want to close the case as soon as possible. They never established who, a few days before the tragedy, sent a threatening postcard to one of Ultimo's co-owners, Mr. With a drawn fish and a cross. Betty certainly didn't. nor Peter. After analyzing their handwriting, investigators ruled that out. It is not known whether this card had anything to do with the crime.

The conflict between the two shop owners has never been thoroughly investigated. And it wasn't a one-time quarrel, but a feud that lasted for years.

The former store employee, who was hanging around the back yard a few days before the crime, was never interrogated. As if he was watching something. Mr. M, the owner of the boutique and tailor's workshop, talks about this man. He says this when Anna is still unconscious, before she pointed to Beata.

The secret employee is Rafał. The owner remembers that he was about 20-25 years old and stocky. A few months earlier, he worked in a boutique at Nowy Świat 36, but left because he found something better. He was not a good worker. On December 13, Mr. M. met him after dark at the tailor's shop, next to Ultimo. It was late and he wanted a work certificate. M tells him to come on Monday morning, December 15.

Rafał comes, but not in the morning, but in the evening. After 8 p.m. He won't do anything at this time. He leaves with nothing. He never comes back for a certificate. The owner doesn't seem to care at all. "Seeing me, he found an excuse to be here."

Photo: Tomasz Pajączek / OnetThis is how the courtyard of the now defunct Ultimo boutique looks like today. Photo: Tomasz Pajączek / OnetView of the entrance from the back to the former Ultimo boutique. One of the residents of the block at ul. Gałczyńskiego, opposite the boutique, says that around 10 pm she saw a man. He was approaching Ultimo's back door. He looked inside. He stayed there for three or four minutes.

Another resident says that on his way home he noticed two strange men walking from the back of Ultimo. One stocky, about 22-24 years old. In a red jacket without a hood. Short blond hair. licked. He couldn't describe the other man. However, he stated that they had a thuggish appearance.

Daniel has his pants on neatly during the inspection. Buttoned fly. And yet, when Anna began to call for help, he was about to run out of the toilet in a hurry. Two fingerprints were secured on the toilet door. Investigators did not check whether they belonged to Daniel. They only excluded Beata and Piotr.

A few months ago, Beata receives a letter. Its author, a man, claims to know who committed the crime in Ultimo. Nobody verifies it.

*

Beata is to spend seven more years in prison. She applied for early release several times. With no effect. He won't leave early unless he repents. And Beata will not show remorse.

– I didn't kill a man. I won't admit to something I didn't do," she says as we talk on the phone.

Beata: – I hope that I will live to see the moment when everything comes to light. And I'll find out who I'm behind.

PS.

Anna refused to talk to us.

Contact with the author: tomasz.pajaczek@redakcjaonet.pl