Matej CURKO

AKA "The Slovak cannibal"

Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Cannibalism
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: 2010
Date of birth: 1967
Victims profile: Lucia Uchnarova, 20 / Elena Gudjakova
Method of murder: Stabbing with knife
Location: Kysak, Košice Region, Slovakia
Status: Died in a firefight with the Slovak police force on May 10, 2011

Inside the Twisted World of Alleged Cannibal Matej Curko

By Bruce Gain - TruTV.com

June 13, 2013

The offer was mutually advantageous, Kanibm claimed. If you wanted to end your life, you only had to come to a place in the woods of Slovakia where he would be happy to kill you if you agreed. He would do it in such a way that you would die quickly and painlessly, since he offered to drug you first before stabbing you in the heart. There was just one catch for those worried about what would happen to their remains afterwards: once dead, Kanibm would cut your body into pieces and then eat you.

It would have been easy to dismiss his online solicitations as the rants of an online crank or someone seeking a partner in an S&M fantasy in which no one would really die. But after police scrutinized his online records and found the bodies in the woods, it became apparent that Kanibm was deadly serious.

Kanibm’s real name was Matej Curko. He was a computer programmer and lived in the small Slovakian village of Kysak. While he mostly kept to himself when at home, the local villagers said they never had any problems with him during the seven years he lived there with his wife and two young daughters. Before a special police team stormed his hideout where they found dismembered bodies and other gruesome evidence, the locals said they would never have taken Curko for a serial killer, much less a cannibal.

The Swiss Citizen Who Wanted to Be Eaten

Police were tipped off by a Swiss citizen who had responded to one of Curko’s posts soliciting someone who wanted to die and to be eaten afterwards. But before going to the police, the Swiss citizen at least seemed interested in Curko’s offer. The two emailed each other a few times before they agreed to meet in Slovakia. Curko very clearly communicated what he wanted and planned to do. In the emails, Curko was also specific about the kind of clothes he wanted the Swiss man to wear when they would meet.

Curko described in detail how he was going to drug the man before stabbing him in the heart. He detailed how he would then cut his body into different parts and begin eating him. He would coat the parts of the body that he would not eat right away with pepper, in order to hide the inevitable stench of rotting flesh that would otherwise attract attention from someone passing by in the woods or animals scavenging for food.

Before travelling to Slovenia to meet his would-be killer, the Swiss man had second thoughts and alerted police. Local police knew by then that Curko was very likely a murderer. A spokesman for the Kysak police department said that they were already privy to his online posts. However, they decided to gather more evidence against him before making an arrest.

An undercover agent assumed the role of the Swiss man and took a train to the village. Once there, he walked in the woods to meet Curko at the designated spot. He came to the meeting wearing the clothes that Curko had requested, with a wire underneath so police could listen in and intervene when needed.

It turned out that that Curko had not only meticulously planned how he would kill and eat his victim, but he had already prepared to defend himself if he were attacked. When the agent identified himself and prepared to apprehend Curko, Curko promptly drew one of the four firearms he was registered to carry and threatened to shoot. A sniper from a special police team hiding nearby promptly shot Curko several times. Before crumpling to the ground, Curko managed to shoot and severely injure one of the SWAT team members.

The injured policeman was rushed to a local hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. After spending a few days in the critical care unit, he managed to pull through. Curko, on the other hand, didn’t make it. The five shots he took caused extensive organ damage and also shattered bones in his arms and face. He died on the operating table less than 48 hours after the sniper had shot him.

A Macabre Trail

Police were unable to question Curko before he succumbed to his injuries, but he had left behind a macabre trail that made him a person of interest in several dozen missing person cases. He had showed up to meet his intended victim carrying a knapsack packed with sedatives, bottles of vodka, spices (presumably to mask the odor of rotting flesh), a gas lighter, gloves, and other items, the Slovakian newspaper the Cas reported. He had also kept carving tools, knives, and rope and an arsenal of pistols and shot guns with plenty of ammunition in the woods.

A candle and makeshift altar were also found, although it was unclear what, if any, type of spiritual practice Curko associated with killing and eating his victims. He never discussed with anyone, either online or in person, that he was involved in a religious or cult activity that might explain how he might have incorporated his makeshift altar in his ritual of dissecting and eating human bodies.

But the most disturbing finding was the discovery of the bodies of two women in the woods. The police were tipped off by a file Curko had saved on his home PC that listed the GPS position of where the bodies were located. Police found the dismembered corpses wrapped in plastic foil in a shallow grave in the forest near Curko’s altar. Police discovered some of their body parts stored in the family freezer as well as. One was naked while the other woman’s clothes had not been removed. Police determined that a photo of body parts that Curko had sent to his intended victim in Switzerland belonged to the two women.

One of bodies was determined by DNA sampling and other tests to belong to a 20 year-old Slovenian woman who had been missing for over a year. The young women had a history of mental illness and had attempted suicide in 2008. Her Facebook posts portended more than just pleas for help; she made it clear that she wanted to die. Curko allegedly zoned in on the young woman’s online persona and convinced her to meet him in the forest near his village. Like he attempted to do with the Swiss man, Curko allegedly described in unequivocal terms what he wanted to do to her in his emails and chat messages.

After Curko’s death, Interpol has sought to establish conclusive links between Curko and dozens of missing persons. Curko’s double life as an alleged cannibal may be linked to 30 missing women in Italy alone, the Italian newspaper the Corriere della Sera reported. The women were aged age 25 to 28 and disappeared between 2009 and 2011, when Curko was killed. However, their bodies have not been found. The Corriere della Sera also reported that someone from Italy was mentioned in an email exchanges between Curko and the Swiss ma, but have been unable to confirm the person’s identity.

Investigators have also been unable to access Curko’s complete online history. Laws in Slovakia prevent Internet service providers from archiving email and other electronic messages for more than two years. It is thus impossible for authorities to analyze most of Curko’s online activity before 2009.

Police have also not been forthcoming about what they have been able to piece together about Curko’s psychological state after combing through his online records and other evidence he left behind. His family members have not issued statements to the press, either, that might have accounted for Curko’s highly unusual behavior.

Few traces of Curko’s past life remain in the village, where the locals hardly knew him before he became world famous as an alleged cannibal. Curko’s wife and kids have reportedly left the village.

Police have removed Curko’s makeshift altar and tools with which he used to cut up bodies from the forest and have relocated the bodies of the two young women. It is very likely that Curko may have died with a great number of secrets about his practice of cannibalism that investigators will never uncover.

Slovak Cannibal’s Possible Italian Victims – Thirty Missing Women Profiled

Italian investigators have requested Slovak police to forward biological evidence and tests on remains found at Matej Curko’s home

By Massimo Sideri - Corriere.it

August 2, 2011

MILAN – About thirty Italian women who disappeared between January 2009 and May 2011 fit the profile – age 25 to 28; no body found – of Slovak cannibal Matej Curko’s consenting victims. The news was released by police sources currently working on the case following reports from Interpol. Operational unit officers and forensic experts face a far from easy task given the nature of the offence and how little they have to go on for the time being. A possible Italian victim emerged from email correspondence between Curko, who died in a firefight with the Slovak police force on 12 May, and Swiss-born Markus Dubach, a consenting victim who changed his mind at the last moment. But the email messages give only the victim’s nationality – Italian – and age. This explains why investigators have cast their net wide to include thirty crimes and unsolved cases over the period when Curko appears to have been active. Forensic experts, on the back foot after recent errors in the Meredith Kercher case, want to be absolutely certain before making any connections with the cannibal murders.

Fridge of horrors

In reality several cases, and one in particular, appear to be more promising. Italian police officers have already asked their Slovak colleagues for biological evidence and tests on items reported to have been found in Curko’s “fridge of horrors” as the cannibal killer not only stored information on his computer but kept human body parts filed away in his fridge. Now scientists want to obtain DNA test results and compare them with samples from relatives of the missing women. Investigators in Slovakia seem to have found other bodies, or parts of other bodies, as well as those of Lucia Uchnarova and Elena Gudjakova, the Slovakian women who disappeared in 2010.

Internet

The other trail being followed up is the one left by Curko on the internet, where the computer technician could be contacted by victims at his confidential email address, kanibm@volny.cz. The nickname kanibm (Cannibal Matej) leaves little to the imagination. So far, the search has uncovered Curko’s two local victims but information is only stored by the provider for a limited period of time so evidence of contacts made and crimes committed before 2009 may already have been deleted. Nevertheless, further evidence or leads could emerge from the missing women’s email correspondence. The victims’ movements are also under investigation. To date, all the individuals definitely involved have been in Slovakia. Curko also arranged his final meeting with Switzerland-based Markus Dubach (who had a Slovakian email address at the same provider as kanibm) for 10 May in the Kysak forest, the area where the killer lived and worked. But instead of Dubach, Curko found a police officer, who shot him five times despite himself being wounded. Investigators also found in the woods what appeared to be a ceremonial altar, where Curko probably killed his victims before removing body parts to be cooked and eaten (there are photographs) and hiding the remains. It is unlikely that Matej Curko ever visited Italy.

Shot Cannibal Case Policeman Released from Hospital

By John Boyd - TheDaily.sk

May 31, 2011

The undercover police officer who was shot while pretending to be the future Swiss victim of alleged cannibal Matej Curko has finally been released from hospital after three weeks, reports TASR newswire.

The officer was shot on 10 May in the village of Kysak as part of the sting operation to catch the flesh-hungry Curko, who himself took five bullets to the head and body from police marksmen, dying in hospital two later.

The 37-yr old police officer was under constant monitoring at the Louis Pasteur Hospital in Kosice for 20 days before being released yesterday. He had a lucky escape as he had been shot through the arm with the bullet entering his chest cavity. The police report states that it was a bullet from Curko’s gun that shot the policeman.

The subsequent police investigation led to the discovery of the mutilated bodies of two young woman who allegedly volunteered to be killed and eaten, just like the Swiss man who backed out at the last minute, with the shot police officer taking his place.

Identities of Two Cannibal Victims Confirmed

By John Boyd - TheDaily.sk

May 24, 2011

The police have now confirmed the identity of the two apparent cannibal victims based on DNA tests, with initial suspicions being confirmed.

The two bodies, which were discovered in a shared shallow grave on 17 May thanks to GPS co-ordinates on the PC of alleged cannibal Matej Curko, have now been identified as those of Lucia Uchnarova from Snina and Elena Gudjakova from Oravske Vesele. The police confirmed the identities for SITA newswire yesterday afternoon.

According to alleged electronic communication between Curko and his two victims broadcast on TV JoJ, the two young women went into the ‘murder and cannibalism’ transaction knowingly and willingly. Both women had been missing since last year, but there might be more victims because based on his alleged correspondence with Lucia Uchnarova, Curko spoke in plural about his voluntary victims.

The Slovak cannibal, as Matej Curko is being referred to, was uncovered after being tricked into meeting a police agent in the village of Kysak as he had previously agreed to kill, cut up and eat a Swiss man who had volunteered himself as dinner. The Swiss man contacted the police, though, but the police operation went wrong as the police tried to arrest Curko.

Curko allegedly pulled out a gun and was then immediately shot five times by police marksmen, but not before he managed to shoot the police agent, who is still in a serious, but improving, condition in hospital. Curko died of his bullet wounds in hospital a few days later on 12 May, taking his full gory story to the grave with him.

Two Victims Volunteered to Be Cannibal Victims

By John Boyd - TheDaily.sk

May 20, 2011

Some startling revelations last night as TV channel JOJ released what it claimed were the internet conversations between Slovak cannibal Matej Curko and the two female victims whose bodies the police believe they have found in shallow graves in the forest.

If the conversations are authentic, then both Lucia Uchnarova and the other victim went voluntarily into the transaction with Curko, knowing they would be killed and eaten.

In the messages with Lucia Uchnarova, Curko is quoted as saying “I am not a rapist, not gay, I am just a pervert who wants to feel death, to touch a dying body” adding that the gender of his victim was not relevant for him.

Their discussion contained all the details of what was about to occur, with both of them excited at having found each other as she wanted to commit suicide and he was willing to assist to feed his own need. Curko is also said to have tried to commit suicide himself at the young age of 17, and even boasted about it, saying he still managed to gun licences.

Curko is cited as writing “If you come (without police), you will die”, and that he would shoot himself if he were caught in the act, but that he would do everything to hide all traces of the gruesome transaction. “No body, no crime” the TV cited.

Curko’s alleged conversations also explain how he could not be a hired killer and didn’t want the screaming, fear and panic in his victims, but their voluntary consent, which was the only way he could satisfy himself. He explained to Uchnarova that he would drug his victims, saying “it worked perfect with most of them”, and so raising suspicions that the two young women may not have been his only exploits.

The recordings claim that miss Uchnarova asked for a photograph of her “future executioner” Curko, but they were both also very cautious about being exposed by the other to the police, and so he refused.

Curko allegedly had similar conversations with the other suspected victim, but neither identity has yet been confirmed by the police. Earlier in the day police commissioner Jaroslav Spisiak said that the police had only disclosed as much information as they deemed fit and that the police would be trying to find out about leaked information from the investigation, probably aware of the special news report being prepared by TV JOJ.

Police Find Two More Cannibal Victims

By John Boyd - TheDaily.sk

May 17, 2011

At a press conference today, police commissioner Jaroslav Spisiak announced the discovery of the decomposed bodies of two women that the police discovered based on GPS co-ordinates that they found on the computer of Slovak supposed cannibal Matej Curka.

Following several days of scouring the surrounding countryside, the bodies were found this morning in a forest near Kysak, where Curka lived. The discovery was made thanks to police IT experts who managed to crack the passwords of Curka’s computer, which then revealed the GPS co-ordinates that led them to the two corpses.

Curka’s computer also contained photographs of the two victims and e-mail correspondence that he had with them while still alive.

Commissioner Spisiak explained: “We managed to identify a shallow grave where two bodies were buried. The bodies were of two women, which had certain parts of their bodies severed”. Spisiak then informed that the missing body parts corresponded to the photographs that were found on Curko’s computer, and which he allegedly had sent to his would-be victim in Switzerland.

The police noted that one of the corpses had personal items that could indicate that it was that of Lucia Uchnarova from Snina. The police had always suspected that Curka had something to do with the young woman’s disappearance, as she had been suicidal and had communicated with Curka. The police must now wait on DNA tests to determine the true identity of the women.

The other dead woman was found naked, with Spisiak refusing to comment on the condition that they found the body in for reasons of sensitivity to relatives. “I don’t think that would be appropriate” said Spisiak. Yesterday, the police also discovered a ceremonial altar in the forest near Curko’s village.

The police will now work on confirming the identities of the bodies and try to work out what exactly happened. Given all the current evidence discovered on the PC of Matej Curko, the police admit there everything points to him committing the crimes.

Spisiak refused to comment at the press briefing whether or not cannibalism was involved, although he did admit that evidence existed to indicate it was true, while refusing to comment for reasons of sensitivity.

Further details should be revealed by the police soon to see whether or not Matej Curko really is a modern-day cannibal and has eaten parts of his victims, and if there could possibly be more. The Daily will keep you informed.

'Kysak cannibal' dies from gunshot wounds

Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská - The Slovak Spectator

May 13, 2011

A would-be cannibal arrested after a shoot-out with police on Tuesday in Kysak (Košice Region) died at Louis Pasteur Hospital in Košice on Thursday, the TASR newswire reported, citing hospital spokesperson Jaroslava Oravcová.

The man, named as Matej Čurko, 43, was hospitalised on May 10 with injuries to his internal organs, shoulder and face. "Surgery [on Čurko] took more than five hours and required the involvement of ten surgeons and three anaesthetists," said Oravcová. However, the patient's state remained critical and he subsequently died of circulatory and organ failure.

Police had tracked an e-mail communication between Čurko and a Swiss citizen in which the Swiss had agreed to be killed and eaten. Čurko – who possessed four legally-held guns – was supposed to drug him, stab him in the heart and quarter him. His remains were to be hidden in woodland – laced with pepper in order to mask the scent and prevent animals from finding the body – and to be eaten over time. However, when the Swiss found out that Čurko was serious about the deal, he reported everything to Swiss police, who alerted the Slovak police via Interpol. Slovak police deployed an agent, who, pretending to be the prospective victim, lured Čurko to a meeting on Tuesday morning in Kysak. Čurko showed up armed, however, and a gunfight with police ensued. He managed to wound a police officer but was himself shot five times by snipers. Police secured a number of knives, saws and a body bag at the crime scene. The injured officer is in an induced coma, but his condition is reported to be stable.