The Criminal Bureau of the National Police Headquarters informed that the policemen of the Undiscovered Crimes Unit, the so-called “X Files”, with the support of the officers of the Investigation and Criminal Department, under the supervision of the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, detained Michał Z., a 48-year-old resident of Warsaw, suspected of the murder of Piotr W. in Warsaw, which took place in 1998.

The murder took place on the night of 1 to 2 October 1998 on the premises of a construction wholesaler in Warsaw, on Kłobucka Street. On the morning of 2 October 1998, the body of a 28-year-old man, lying in a pool of blood, was found by an employee of the wholesaler. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was the extensive head injuries sustained as a result of injuries inflicted with a heavy, hard instrument with which the man had been hit.

As established during the investigation, the victim Piotr W. had been employed at the warehouse since April 1998 as a warehouseman. Despite several actions carried out during the then ongoing investigation, it was not possible to establish the perpetrator of the murder.

Years later, the case was revisited by the staff of the Undetected Crimes Unit of the Criminal Bureau of the National Police Headquarters. The evidence gathered in the case was re-examined, resulting in the transfer of traces and material evidence secured at the scene of the crime to the Forensic Laboratory of the Warsaw Police Headquarters for renewed forensic examination.

On the basis of the results of expert analyses, DNA traces left by the perpetrator were linked with the person of 49-year-old Michał Z., then an inhabitant of the Wyszków district. During further activities, it was established that the above-mentioned person currently resides in Warsaw. At the time of the murder, he was 23 years old and was an employee of a neighbouring company.

Michał Z. was detained and brought to the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, where he was charged with murder. At the prosecutor’s request, the Warsaw Mokotow District Court decided to remand the suspect in custody for three months.

Adrian Andrzejewski