In 2005, Silesia was shocked to learn about the mysterious disappearance of 25-year-old Marcin Sakowicz from Zabrze. The man left home in the early hours of the morning and a trace of him disappeared. Despite the strenuous efforts of his family and the inclusion of the media in the case, years passed without any answers as to what happened to him and where he was. There was a breakthrough in the case after 17 years. Were the remains of the missing citizen of Zabrze in the car wreck found at the bottom of the Oder River?
A fiat Siena at the bottom of the Oder and a body inside
The scuba diver Marcel Korkus has probably succeeded in solving a criminal mystery from 2005. As we read on marcelkorkus.com, the man located the wrecked car with sonar on 27 June this year, at the level of Obrowiec near Krapkowice, while searching for a person who went missing five years ago. He returned to the site of the discovery on the first weekend of July, where he found a Fiat Siena with registration no: SZ 36416 with a body behind the wheel of the vehicle.
“The car, due to the long period it had been underwater, is silted up and covered in mussel shells. All windows are closed, the windscreen is missing, and the boot is closed. In an attempt to verify the car for human remains I tried to squeeze inside. The interior is silt-covered to the height of the steering wheel. On the driver’s side, I found a material resembling a jumper sleeve that goes into the silt and leads towards the seat. Attempting to extract it was impossible due to the heavy backfill and the immediate deterioration of visibility to zero,” the diver wrote on marcekorkus.com.
The case was reported to the police and it turned out that the car had been reported missing, mind you, 17 years ago by the wife of the vehicle’s owner. According to gliwice.naszemiasto.pl, on the same day, i.e., 12 April 2005, the woman’s husband, 25-year-old Marcin S., a resident of Zabrze, who was also searched for by uniformed officers, disappeared without a trace. Everything indicates that the body found in the car at the bottom of the Oder River belongs to him.
As we read on marcelkorkus.com, on Tuesday, 5 July, the wreck of the Fiat Sienna was brought from the river to the surface, and a DNA sample was taken from the body found inside to confirm the identity of the man. Further activities in the case are being carried out by the District Attorney’s Office in Strzelce Opolskie, which has opened proceedings for manslaughter.
The man went missing on 12 April 2005. In the early hours of the morning, he was supposed to go to the bank to pay tuition for his studies and then to a forklift operator course. He did not arrive at both of these places.
“We have no contact with him, not even the slightest message. He didn’t take his passport or any major sum of money. He just disappeared,” said the missing man’s wife during the first search attempts
It never happened that he did not inform her when he was late, let alone when he was absent for an extended period. The couple was newly married and their daughter Victoria had just been born.
The family is convinced that Marcin had bragged to a third party the day before that he was going to the bank to deposit “cash” (it was about 400 zloty) and this may have caused his disappearance.
It is also not ruled out that Marcin may have deliberately left his loved ones, due to difficulties in finding work and providing a decent living for his wife and daughter.
On Tuesday 5 July 2022 in the afternoon, the “Opole” Specialist Water and Diving Rescue Group, assisted by firefighters from JRG Krapkowice and OSP Obrawiec excavated the wrecked car from the bottom of the river and pulled it to the riverbank.
Subsequently, the vehicle was taken over by police officers, who proceeded to carry out further activities, which ended with the confirmation of the discovery of human remains in the car.
Do they belong to Marcin Sakowicz from Zabrze, who disappeared on 12 April 2005? This question will certainly be answered by thorough DNA testing, which is currently underway.
The investigation, in this case, is being conducted by the police under the supervision of the attorney.