Murder of Kristina Susnjara Made Croatia Cry

Kristina disappeared on January 5, 2008. She was found cut up three days later. The brutal murder was committed by Luka Pezelj.

Whilst all of Croatia was still enjoying the holiday spirit, and the first days of 2008 were being counted, the call of a father whose 21 year old daughter went towards Sinj on January 5, but did not arrive sounded in the media.

Three days later, after people had heard her name 1,000 times, Kristina Susnjara was found cut up to the limit of recognisability, so that a DNA analysis had to be carried out to discover that the 21 year old was in question, who enjoyed writing songs more than anything else.

The fast action of the police, thanks to a number of witnesses who recognized the car Kristina was sitting in on the Trilj bridge, closed in on the monstrous killer Luka Pezelj fast.

Soon afterwards he admitted his crime, but denied that he beat Kristina after he first tried to rape her. According to some claims, Pezelj liked Kristina from earlier, so seeing her hitchhiking on the bridge, he decide to use the opportunity.

Crushed her organs whilst he heartlessly beat her

He offered her a ride to Sinj where Kristina was to meet a friend, but the murderer turned from the main road, making up a story that he has to go home to get some money. He parked somewhere on an unsealed road, where he tried to rape her. Angry because of her rejection and resistance, he beat her with a spanner.

Whilst he was beating her with all his might, he was kneeling on her fingers and crushing her internal organs, showed the investigation. Then, in order to hide the evidence of the crime, he burned parts of Kristina’s clothing in a fireplace. Three days later, the beat up body, with a jacket over her head, was found by a passer by on the road towards Blato on the Cetina river.

28 blows with the spanner on the body and head killed Kristina, and with that, the confession by Luka Pezelj guarantees that the monster will be locked up for a long time. In custody, Pezelj allegedly tried to commit suicide, and the reason he gave is that Kristina comes to him in his dreams and tells him to kill himself.

To this day it is not known if this was only one of Pezelj’s tricks in order to influence the court committee, or an attempt to portray himself as a person who is out of control, like his lawyer Zeljko Gulisija presented him. Just before the start of the trial, Gulisija sought the exclusion of the entire County Court in Split, for bias, but he did not get it.

Normal and in control, but not too intelligent

At the trial, one member of the court committee started crying when the details of the crime were being read, but Pezelj was not shaken by the testimony of Kristina’s father, or the description of the crime that he committed. He started crying when his father testified, and showed he remorse for the murder, just before his sentence was read.

In the mean time, the main discussion came down to if there was an attempt of rape, and if Pezelj was in control. In both cases the court experts did their job correctly. The psychiatric experts claimed that Luka Pezelj was normal and in control, but intellectually below average. Maybe this is why after confessing he tried to “sell the story” that he did not try to rape her, and he showed that story like that became he panicked.

Also, he stated that Kristina’s wounds occurred when she accidently fell whilst getting out of the car and hit her head on the concrete. He did not count on science that advanced so much, and the expertise of the experts that totally reconstructed the tragic event.

31 years for attempted rape and murder

All of that was enough for the court committee led by Bruno Klein to sentence Pezelj to 28 years for murder, and another four for attempted rape, which was combined into a single 31 year sentence.

The verdict was brought on October 20, 2008. Exactly one month later, Pezelj attempted suicide again by injuring his neck with a metal object.

His life was saved and the doctors characterised his injuries as light.