Metod Trobec was convicted in 1980 of murdering five women at his mother's homestead in Dolenja vas pri Polhovem Gradcu, a village near Polhov Gradec. The killings took place between 1976 and 1978, according to Žurnal24, and came to light only in 1979, after he robbed a German tourist who had taken down the number of his car. A court in Kranj sentenced him to death on November 25, 1980. The national press agency STA, in a 2021 review of the country's heaviest sentences, listed him as the last person in Slovenian history condemned to die.
The death sentence was never carried out. The Supreme Court set the first verdict aside, a second trial at Kranj in 1982 again ended in a death sentence, and on appeal the penalty was changed to 20 years in prison, then the longest prison term the law allowed. Two attacks on a fellow prisoner earned him 15 more years. He spent 27 years in prison without release, which the Ljubljana web portal Siol.net described in 2011 as a Slovenian record, and on May 30, 2006, he took his own life in his cell at Dob pri Mirni. While in prison he admitted killing a sixth woman, a case that never went to court.
In 2011 Siol.net wrote that he and Silvo Plut were regarded as the only true serial killers the country had produced, and in 2025 the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija reported on a dramatized television series based on his crimes.
Trobec was born on June 6, 1948. Žurnal24 gives the day and Svet24 the year; neither report gives his birthplace. Svet24 wrote that he was born outside marriage and grew up in his mother's care. Žurnal24 reported that he finished only six grades of primary school.
The same reports sketch a young man who drifted between jobs and petty crime. According to Svet24, he is said to have set fire to a neighbor's hay at 14 and to have stolen a moped at 18. After his military service he worked for the Yugoslav railways and then went to West Germany, where, Žurnal24 reported, he trained as an auto body repairman in search of better pay. A prison educator who worked with him for years later told 24ur.com that Trobec talked to him about the period he spent working in Germany, though never about his crimes.
He came back to Yugoslavia in 1974. That year, both Svet24 and Žurnal24 reported, he married a woman 21 years older than himself. Žurnal24 wrote that she soon found he was bringing stolen goods into the house. Svet24 reported that she later described him as cruel to her and said he had tormented a dog. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1978, according to Žurnal24, he married again; that marriage lasted nine months.
Žurnal24 described him as withdrawn and solitary among men, but charming and well groomed, qualities that helped him win the trust of women.
By the mid-1970s Trobec already had a criminal record. Svet24 reported that he committed several robberies, thefts and frauds and was sentenced to 13 months in prison, and that signs of psychological instability were first noticed at that time. Siol.net reported that he was convicted of attempted fraud in 1974.
He received psychiatric treatment, though the reports differ on where and when. RTV Slovenija reported at the time of his death that he had been treated at the Celje psychiatric hospital before the killings. Svet24 wrote that he was given electroconvulsive therapy at the Polje psychiatric hospital in Ljubljana, labeled a psychopath, declared healthy and released. Siol.net wrote that the electroshock treatment was given while he was in prison in 1974, for what was diagnosed as a neurotic reaction, and that Trobec later described its effect by saying that his "film had snapped." After his release, according to Svet24, he became a heavy drinker and went back to stealing.
The killings took place at a homestead in Dolenja vas pri Polhovem Gradcu that belonged to his mother, Žurnal24 reported; Svet24 called it his second home. His mother later lived at Spodnja Bela, according to 24ur.com. At the time of his trial, Siol.net reported, Trobec worked as a storekeeper at Metalka.
The court found that Trobec killed five women. Žurnal24, in a 2025 report, named them and gave their ages:
Vida Markovčič, 18
Marjana Cankar, 52
Urška Brečko, 20
Ana Plevnik, 42
Zorka Nikolić, 32
Svet24, in 2015, gave the same five women with slightly different spellings and one different age, writing the first and last names as Vida Markovič and Zorka Nikolič and giving Zorka's age as 35. Siol.net described the victims as women between 18 and 52 years old.
Beyond their names and ages, little has been published about who these women were. The killings took place over about three years, from 1976 to 1978 in Žurnal24's account, while RTV Slovenija and Svet24 placed them all in 1978. The court found that he strangled them, according to RTV Slovenija and Svet24.
In 1979 Trobec robbed a German tourist. The tourist noted the registration number of his car, a red Stoenka, and reported it, according to Žurnal24 and Svet24. Police stopped Trobec in Kranj the same evening, Žurnal24 reported.
Officers then found a number of stolen items, Svet24 wrote, and a search of the house in Dolenja vas led to the discovery of human remains. The documents of the missing women were found as well. Among them, Žurnal24 reported, were papers belonging to a sixth woman, Olga Pajić, 36, who it said had probably met the same fate but was not among the women in the indictment. RTV Slovenija reported in 2006 that once he was caught, he confessed to killing one more woman.
During the investigation he gave several confessions that did not agree with one another, according to Siol.net. At his trial he said he did not remember the crimes.
The trial opened at Kranj on October 30, 1980, Žurnal24 reported. On November 25, 1980, the court sentenced him to death for five murders, a robbery and two grand thefts. Siol.net named the court as the basic court in Kranj and reported that Trobec, then 32, did not flinch when the sentence was read, but became agitated when he was told he would have to pay the costs of the proceedings. The death penalty was still lawful in Slovenia at the time and remained so until 1989, Žurnal24 noted.
His mother testified. According to Siol.net, she told the court that he had been her favorite child.
His lawyer, Stanislav Klep, argued that Trobec was mentally ill and that his doctors had destroyed his personality. Siol.net reported that Klep wrote a 45-page appeal in 1980, and that at least twelve psychiatric, psychological or neuropsychological reports were prepared on Trobec over the years.
The Supreme Court set aside the first verdict, Žurnal24 reported, because it found that mental illness in Trobec's family had not been given enough weight. The case went back to Kranj. At the retrial in 1982 the Kranj court again imposed the death penalty.
The second death sentence did not stand either. Žurnal24 and Siol.net reported that a higher court in Ljubljana changed it to 20 years in prison. Other reports, including RTV Slovenija in 2006, Svet24 in 2015 and the STA review of 2021, say that the Supreme Court of Slovenia made the change on appeal. All agree on the result: 20 years, at that time the most severe prison term available. The year of that decision has not been reported.
RTV Slovenija, Žurnal24 and the STA have all described Trobec as the last person in Slovenian history to be sentenced to death. In December 2021, when Silvo Drevenšek became the first defendant sentenced to life imprisonment for a triple murder, RTV Slovenija and the STA reported that life imprisonment had been reintroduced in 2008; earlier cases had ended in terms of 30 years, described as the highest possible.
Trobec's own statements about how many women he killed changed over time. RTV Slovenija reported in 2006 that he confessed to the murder of one more woman. Svet24 wrote that he later admitted killing Olga Pajič, 36. The prison educator Fulvio Dovgan told 24ur.com that after Trobec's five convictions, traces of a sixth victim were found, and that Trobec admitted it but said she had in fact been his first. Siol.net reported that he spoke about the killings in a 1991 interview with the weekly Mladina. The sixth death was never tried, and it is attributed to him only by his own admission.
Trobec served his sentence mainly at Dob pri Mirni, 24ur.com reported. Fulvio Dovgan, an educator who was assigned to him there for about nine years, told 24ur.com that everyone in the prison was afraid of him. "Metoda Trobca so se vsi bali, vsi zaprti so se ga bali," he said: everyone feared him, all the prisoners feared him. Dovgan described him as unpredictable and solitary. In the exercise yard he always walked alone, carrying papers and a glass of Cedevita, a fruit drink. He never looked people in the eye, Dovgan said, but watched them closely.
Prison did not end his violence. Svet24 and the STA reported that he twice tried to kill a fellow prisoner, in May 1988 and in August 1992; Svet24 gave the date of the second attack as August 28, 1992. Žurnal24 described three separate attacks on fellow prisoners. For the attempts he received a combined sentence of 15 years. Dovgan told 24ur.com that after about nine years of working together, Trobec attacked him too, without warning or apparent reason. Dovgan was not seriously hurt, and Trobec was moved soon afterward.
Siol.net reported that Trobec once set fire to his cell and that he brewed his own alcohol in prison, a drink he called "mušica." He was once taken from the prison to visit his mother at Spodnja Bela, Dovgan said, and described her as the only bright figure in Trobec's world. Asked whether Trobec ever regretted what he had done, Dovgan said that Trobec never said a word to him about it.
With the extra 15 years, his term would have run until 2014, according to RTV Slovenija and the STA; Siol.net and Žurnal24 gave the release year as 2015.
In his last months Trobec's health declined. RTV Slovenija reported that he refused medical examinations, including a specialist check at the hospital in Novo mesto for suspected prostate cancer, and that he also refused psychiatric treatment. Jože Podržaj, the director of the Dob prison, said staff had seen his physical and mental state worsen but had not thought it unusual for a prisoner. Communication with him had become difficult. Svet24 reported that his mother had died in March 2006.
Early on May 30, 2006, Trobec hanged himself in his cell, RTV Slovenija reported that day, at around 4 a.m. When guards tried to open the cell in the morning they found the door blocked and had to force their way in. A doctor from the Trebnje health center, police from Trebnje, an investigating judge of the Novo mesto District Court and a district state prosecutor from Novo mesto attended. The prison director said staff had not considered him a suicide risk, since no serious attempt had been recorded. An internal commission found no irregularities in the prison's handling of the case, and after an autopsy ordered by the court his body was taken to Ljubljana for further examination. He was 57, Žurnal24 reported. Svet24 wrote that his death was presumed to have been prompted by his mother's death and by advancing prostate cancer.
Silvo Plut, the other man Slovenian reports describe as a serial killer, was found dead in his own cell at Dob on April 28, 2007, according to 24ur.com.
Trobec was buried at the cemetery in Šentrupert, near the prison. Siol.net described the grave as anonymous. Žurnal24 reported in 2025 that his ashes lie in an urn under a marble plate that bears no name, only the words "Upravlja ZPKZ Dob," marking it as a grave in the care of the Dob prison. Five other Dob prisoners who died between 2008 and 2022 are buried in the same plot.
There was a church funeral. A local resident told Žurnal24 that some villagers were unhappy about it and that the parish housekeeper had turned them away because Trobec had been baptized. In the years after his death, the same report said, people in long black robes were seen lighting candles at the grave.
The case left a mark on Slovenian culture. Siol.net reported in 2011 that the poet Svetlana Makarovič wrote a ballad about him, performed by Slon and Sadež, and that a post-punk band in Zagreb took its name from the case. The philosopher Slavoj Žižek analyzed Trobec as a "typical Slovene," shaped by a "Cankarian" devotion to the mother. Karmen Šterk discussed Trobec and Plut in her book "Serijski morilec: normalen psihopat patološke matere."
In July 2025 RTV Slovenija reported on the first season of a dramatized series about the crimes, "Pošast za železno zaveso," written and directed by Tomaž Gorkič, with Svit Stefanija in the lead role. For legal reasons the main character is called Metod Štrbec. The report noted that Trobec had earlier been portrayed by Luka Cimprič in the 2018 short film "Metod."
How many women he killed. He was convicted of five murders and admitted a sixth. The sixth case was never tried.
When the killings took place. Žurnal24 dates them to 1976 through 1978; RTV Slovenija (2006) and Svet24 (2015) place them in 1978.
The spelling of names and one age. Žurnal24 gives Vida Markovčič, Zorka Nikolić, 32, and Olga Pajić; Svet24 gives Vida Markovič, Zorka Nikolič, 35, and Olga Pajič.
Which court changed the death sentence. Žurnal24 and Siol.net name a higher court in Ljubljana; RTV Slovenija, Svet24 and the STA name the Supreme Court of Slovenia.
The charges. Žurnal24 lists the convictions as five murders, robbery and two grand thefts. STA reports describe the convictions in different terms.
Where and when he received psychiatric treatment. Reports name the Celje psychiatric hospital, the Polje psychiatric hospital in Ljubljana and treatment in prison in 1974.
His release date had he lived. 2014 (RTV Slovenija, STA) or 2015 (Siol.net, Žurnal24).
The attacks in prison. Svet24 and the STA report two attempts on one fellow prisoner; Žurnal24 reports knife attacks on three.
June 6, 1948: Metod Trobec is born (day per Žurnal24, year per Svet24).
1974: Returns from West Germany and marries for the first time; convicted of attempted fraud (Siol.net).
1976 to 1978: Five women are killed at the homestead in Dolenja vas pri Polhovem Gradcu (Žurnal24; other reports give 1978).
1978: Second marriage, which lasts nine months.
1979: Robs a German tourist, who notes his car's registration; arrested the same evening in Kranj. Remains and documents are found at Dolenja vas.
October 30, 1980: Trial opens at Kranj.
November 25, 1980: Sentenced to death for five murders, robbery and two grand thefts.
After 1980: The Supreme Court sets the verdict aside.
1982: Retrial at Kranj ends in a second death sentence.
After 1982: On appeal the sentence is changed to 20 years in prison.
May 1988: First attempt to kill a fellow prisoner.
1989: The death penalty ceases to be lawful in Slovenia (Žurnal24).
1991: Speaks about the killings in an interview with Mladina (Siol.net).
August 28, 1992: Second attempt to kill a fellow prisoner; a combined 15 more years follow.
March 2006: His mother dies (Svet24).
May 30, 2006: Dies by suicide in his cell at Dob pri Mirni, aged 57; later buried in an unmarked grave at Šentrupert.
2008: Life imprisonment is reintroduced in Slovenia.
July 2025: RTV Slovenija reports on a dramatized series based on the case.