00:00:04
[intense music] - When a murder's committed, it's always a race against
time to find the truth,
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to separate fact from fiction, to catch the killer, and to make sure that
justice is served.
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But what happens when the
truth vanishes with the victim? I'm Dr. Richard Shepherd,
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and I've spent my entire career
as a forensic pathologist performing nearly
23,000 autopsies.
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I've learned that the
dead don't hide the truth and they never lie. Through me, you'll be hearing
directly from the victim.
00:00:45
With the aid of a
state-of-the-art laboratory using groundbreaking technology, I'll be investigating a
series of intriguing crimes
00:00:54
where from the victim's
bodies are revealed to you the truth behind these murders.
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[camera clicking] [mysterious music] Little Venice in London is
famous for the houseboats
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that make their way along
the Grand Union Canal. But in May, 2015, this
picture-postcard location
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became a crime scene when
a member of the public made a shocking discovery. [circle beeping]
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- In the Little Venice
area of west London near to Paddington
Railway Station, it's an area where quite a
lot of people live on barges
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as their place of residence. And two people were
in a canal boat and heard a noise against
the side of their boat,
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which caused them
to look outside, and they saw a
suitcase in the canal. [foreboding tune]
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- The two friends
on that house boat looked down into
the water and saw distinctive red hair
flowing out of it.
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[buttons beeping] - They became very concerned
and decided to call the police. - But police obviously need
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to essentially find
out what's happened. So, being able to recover
the suitcase from the canal,
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which is, in itself, potentially
quite challenging task because it's in the water,
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so police have got
to make a decision as to whether they
enter the water or not.
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If they're able
to actually reach and remove the item
without entering the water,
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that is obviously safer. So, they've gotta consider that. Then also, the actual
weight of the suitcase.
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Because at that point, they don't know what's
in the suitcase, and it's in a body of water,
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so it may well be full of water, which will add to the weight. - [Richard] Having
retrieved the suitcase,
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police and forensic
teams were shocked at what it contained.
[camera clicks] - What was found in
the suitcase was a body
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that had been placed essentially
in the fetal position. The body was
wrapped in bin bags,
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and also, a curtain was
placed in the suitcase. [camera clicks] - When a body's found in
a suitcase in a canal,
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that's a homicide. That's a suspicious death. - [Richard] The police
immediately launched
00:03:13
a murder investigation. - The first thing that
they will need to do is identify who that
person is in the suitcase
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because it'd be very difficult
for the police to find out who killed them without
knowing who they are.
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[zipper zipping] - So, the police looked
to the body for answers. The body that was
found in the canal
00:03:39
was folded inside a suitcase. It was in the fetal position and wrapped in
curtains and bin bags.
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There was no ID, no purse, no
other obvious identification, but it's still
possible for this body
00:03:52
to reveal a lot of information, even if the body is reduced
to simply a skeleton.
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If you know how to read bones, you can get a lot of
information from that. The age of death, the height,
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and from the shape of
the pelvis, the sex
of the individual. Some decomposition had
set in, but the organs,
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tissues, and skin were
still largely intact, thanks to the cooler water
temperature of the canal,
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which slowed down the
rate of decomposition. So, a body like this, where there is still soft
tissue, has many more secrets
00:04:26
it can reveal to a
forensic pathologist. In the mortuary, the body
can be measured and weighed
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and the teeth can help
determine the age too, since they erupt
throughout life. For instance, the wisdom
teeth appear in your 20s.
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In this case, the body
had its wisdom teeth. And the shape of the pelvic
bone indicated it was female.
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From all this, it could be
determined with some certainty that she was a white woman,
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approximately five foot
two, weighing eight stone, and it was clear
that she was young,
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in her early 20s. But there was no
missing persons report for anyone like that. So, who was she?
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[mysterious music] With, little to go on, even forensic evidence
proved limited.
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- Ultimately, when
somebody's body is in water, it's likely to remove
things like DNA,
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opportunities to
recover evidence. For me, the most important thing is to make an appeal via the
media, via all forms of media,
00:05:32
asking for witnesses
to come forward, asking for people
to report in anybody that they're concerned about,
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to try and work through
opportunities to identify who the person is. Because once that's established,
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it opens up a vast array
of other opportunities to identify if there
are any other scenes
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that need to be cordoned
and searched and examined, because, for example, where she was actually
placed into the water,
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if it was different to where
the suitcase was found. [soft somber music] - [Richard] Then detectives
got a breakthrough.
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A man called Tomasz
Kocik contacted police to report his
girlfriend missing. Kocik later identified the
body as that of Marta Ligman.
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Journalist Henry Vaughan
remembers the case well. - I first heard about
the case of Marta Ligman
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when her body was
discovered in a suitcase in the Grand Union Canal. I was working as a court
reporter at the time.
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It's a very unusual
set of circumstances, so that is something
that sticks in the mind.
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- Marta Ligman came
to the UK in 2012 and she worked in a delicatessen in Halston in northwest London.
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Very highly thought
of by her boss, described as a
very pleasant girl with aspirations to get married,
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to have a family to
settle in the UK, the very, very
pleasant demeanor, very
helpful and outgoing.
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- She'd come over from
Poland to the United Kingdom to live and work and
make a life for herself.
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A very brave thing for her
to have done, actually. - She was very popular,
had lots of friends,
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and well liked by
everyone who knew her. - [Richard] In
London, Marta moved in with her Polish
boyfriend, Tomasz Kocik,
00:07:37
who she'd first
met back in Poland. - Marta met Kocik on
a internet chat room.
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[keyboard keys tapping] - Both Polish nationals, so they formed a friendship,
formed a relationship.
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- Tomasz Kocik was quite
a bit older than Marta, around 38 at the time. He was also from Poland
and lived in London
00:08:02
working as a forklift
truck driver. He'd also spent
some time in Ireland before moving to the UK.
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- That relationship then
developed into what seemingly was a very, very affectionate,
loving relationship.
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To the extent that
Marta took the decision to move from her home
in Poland to London,
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a big step for her to set up
home really with Tomasz Kocik. - She probably went into that
relationship feeling so happy,
00:08:37
so excited, and she may
even have fallen for him before they physically met. She may have fallen for
him whilst they're still,
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you know, maybe talking online. - At the start, they seemed to
have a very good relationship
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and she was very happy. Their neighbors said they
seemed like a perfect couple and also that Kocik seemed
quite protective of Marta.
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- Kocik was around 15
years older than Marta. He was a builder by trade and came into this country
purely for work purposes.
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He was a very caring
person towards Marta. He was always concerned
about her wellbeing
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and he wanted to look after her, so they had a very happy
and settled relationship.
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Marta wanted to get married,
she wanted to have children, and she thought
when she met Kocik
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that that was his dream as well. "This is what I want, too. I want a wife, I want a
family, I want children.
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I'm very traditional." So, that would've played into
everything that she wanted.
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- To people from the outside,
seemingly very happy. - [Richard] So, how did
this young woman's life
00:09:48
end so tragically? - Things can change
literally overnight. [dark tune] [dark tune]
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[mysterious music] - In 2015, police launched
a murder investigation after the body of 23-year-old
Polish delicatessen worker,
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Marta Ligman, was found
folded into a suitcase and dumped in a London canal. [slow dark music]
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- When her body was
found in a suitcase in the Grand Union Canal, it's a very unusual
set of circumstances,
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so it was an immediately
a high-profile case. - It's important to
recognize that the location
00:10:35
where Marta's body
was found in the canal is not necessarily the same
as the deposition site,
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i.e., where the suitcase
entered the canal. And also, there may
be other locations
00:10:46
where events have taken place that would inform
the investigation about the events that
led to Marta's death.
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- There were witnesses who had seen the suitcase in
the canal and dismissed it without causing any suspicion
00:10:59
in their minds
about the suitcase. But it had traveled a
significant distance to the point of Little Venice,
00:11:05
where Marta's body
was discovered. - However, what may
well be preserved, because of the fact
that Marta is enclosed
00:11:13
within the suitcase,
is evidence of injuries or evidence that
would be later inform
00:11:18
the investigation
as to how she died. [mysterious music] - The post-mortem showed
she'd been in the canal
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for between seven and 10 days. We can estimate this because
the water in the canal
00:11:36
where Marta's body was
found would've been colder than the air temperature,
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and therefore slowed down the
decomposition of her body, making it easier to determine
the exact time of death.
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We know that she was
folded up very tightly in a small space with her
knees up to her chest.
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This position would've limited
movement of the rib cage and stopped air being
drawn into her lungs.
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It would've been almost
impossible to get her folded into that tight space
unless she was immobile.
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But what we don't know
is whether she was dead when she was put into the
suitcase or just unconscious.
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And the terrible truth is that Marta might
still have been alive when she was thrown
into the canal.
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[slow intense music] - The most distressing detail that the pathologist
could not rule out
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that Marta was not alive or dead when she was placed
into the suitcase. - [Richard] In their
hunt for the killer,
00:12:41
police needed to eliminate
the most obvious suspect from their inquiries. The man who'd first
reported her missing,
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her boyfriend, Tomasz Kocik. - We know that the most likely
person to kill any woman
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is their partner or ex-partner. So, intimate partner homicide, that's where a man kills
his partner, or ex-partner,
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is actually the biggest
category of homicide for women. So, as soon as
murder is identified,
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Kocik is at the top of
the list straight away. [foreboding tune] - Kocik was 15 years
older than Marta Ligman,
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and I think it's quite
important just to consider that when they met online,
Marta was a teenager.
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- That is a bit of a red
flag because statistically, somebody much older
than a woman especially
00:13:36
is going to be targeting them because they are more malleable, they are more
vulnerable, they're less
experienced in life.
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- So, I think in terms
of power imbalance and the dynamic within
the relationship,
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he was likely to be
more sort of influential in the way that things were
within the relationship,
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which, again,
could have affected the way that they live
their lives together and subsequent events.
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- There are extra
risks, I think, to meeting somebody online. It's very easy to present
yourself as something
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other than you
actually are online, and it's very, very difficult
to question any of that.
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And if you do those first
few meetings online, by the time you are
face-to-face with that person,
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you think you already
know a lot about them, and so your instincts in that
first face-to-face meeting
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will be very much dampened. [slow dramatic music] - Marta had lived in the
UK for about three years,
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and friends have noticed that
Marta's behavior had started to change, so she'd become
quieter, more reserved.
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And some concerns generally were being noted by
people that knew her or they felt that something
was not quite right
00:15:06
in the relationship. - The changes in her started
to happen quite quickly. She started to withdraw,
she started to lose weight,
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she started being less happy, seeing less of her friends, and and that concerned them.
00:15:24
- Kocik became very controlling, and her friends said
she wasn't the sort of happy-go-lucky
person she used to be.
00:15:31
- [Richard] Within three years, Kocik had also become
obsessively jealous about Marta.
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- As time developed
during their relationship, things began to take
a turn for the worse.
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His behavior became
more controlling, more coercive,
and even obsessive about Marta's movements
and her whereabouts.
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- And he was very
intense about it. Every single thing
she did, he was there. He was following her,
he was tracking her,
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he was isolating her. - And asking a lot of
very searching questions and generally exhibiting
an area of suspicion
00:16:03
about the way that
Marta was behaving without any grounds
that are known of, but just a very controlling
kind of approach
00:16:12
taken by Kocik at that time. - He would turn up at her work. Every day, he'd pick
her up from her work
00:16:19
'cause he didn't trust her. There's even one occasion
where he demanded that the boss
00:16:24
of the deli she worked
in show in the CCTV to prove that she'd
been working there.
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- And that was quite
concerning to her boss. [foreboding tune] - The first control
that always comes in
00:16:37
is what we call jealousy code. So, he would've been
saying things like, "Don't like it when
you talk to other men.
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Makes me feel really,
really jealous. Don't do it." And she probably thought,
"Oh, fair enough.
00:16:48
Well, I won't do that. I'm not gonna wind him up." But there would've come a point
00:16:52
where she did something
to break that rule, not on purpose, and he would've
punished her for it,
00:17:00
and that punishment
was set the tone for everything that
happens going forward. [dark mysterious music]
00:17:12
- One of her friends
recalled an occasion where Marta wore some very
thick rimmed spectacles,
00:17:17
and what the friend thought
was to try to hide the fact that she had some
facial bruising.
00:17:22
- This made everyone
very concerned about Marta's wellbeing. - The behavior progressed
00:17:27
to essentially monitoring
Marta's behavior, moving more towards what
can generally be described
00:17:33
as a controlling or
coercive type relationship. - People who are controlling
and who use coercive control
00:17:42
are actually trying to trap you into a relationship with them. So, that means that you can't
get out of this relationship.
00:17:50
"You've committed to me. You can never leave" - To build the case against
Kocik being the killer,
00:17:57
police needed to know if
Marta's body revealed signs of a controlling and
abusive relationship.
00:18:03
So, what could
Marta's body tell us about the final tragic
hours of her life?
00:18:09
When Marta's body was
removed from the suitcase, it was evident she'd
suffered a severe beating.
00:18:15
She had numerous
injuries to her face and her body that must
have been inflicted
00:18:19
in the hours before she
was thrown into the canal. But she also had other
injuries that were older.
00:18:26
Bruises can be aged because
they change color over time, going from purple and
blue to yellow and green,
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and finally to brown. Marta's body was covered
in old and fresh bruises, but it's the fractures
that are most revealing.
00:18:42
A recent fracture
looks like this. And here, you can see the
clear separation in the bones.
00:18:48
But these broken ends
will knit back together over a period of
weeks and months.
00:18:53
And Marta also had
several healed fractures. So, what her body revealed was
that she had been subjected
00:19:00
to a prolonged and savage attack immediately before her death. But it also showed
that this was part
00:19:08
of a long history
of physical abuse. - Older injuries
would be consistent with what the
friends had described
00:19:15
in terms of there
being a deterioration
in the relationship and more violence being
used towards Marta.
00:19:22
[intense music] - Kocik used to play
loud music in the flats, which is believed to have
covered up him beating her.
00:19:32
[intense music continues] - So, I think she
did something trivial or something that he made up
00:19:39
and he probably really,
really hurt her, but that's a warning
for the future.
00:19:44
"That's your punishment." It's what we call the three Cs, so it's control,
challenge, consequence.
00:19:53
So, the control is in place, rules of the relationship. "You will not make me jealous."
00:19:59
There's some kind of
challenge to that. Maybe she's caught
speaking to somebody.
00:20:03
What are the consequences? The third C, violence. Now, the consequences
reinstate the control.
00:20:11
She thinks, "I'm never
gonna do that again. I am never gonna
speak to another man"
00:20:17
Or, "I'm just never
gonna do anything ever to upset this man 'cause
I'm now scared of him."
00:20:23
She was literally
trapped like a hostage in this relationship with him. - [Richard] There was still
no hard evidence linking Kocik
00:20:34
to the assaults or the murder. But Marta's phone messages
were raising further suspicions
00:20:40
among friends and colleagues. [mysterious music] - The boss at the delicatessen
received a message
00:20:53
basically to say that Marta
was not gonna attend work because her mum was sick in
Poland and needed to leave,
00:20:59
which was described as being
out of character for Marta, that Marta would not have
sent a message that way.
00:21:04
She would've gone into
the shop and explained. Also, messages were
sent to Marta's friends
00:21:12
to explain that
she'd left Kocik. So, there was quite an
amount of communication
00:21:18
from Marta's Facebook
account and from her device. - On Facebook Messenger,
sending one of her friends
00:21:30
about 50 messages they
exchanged between them. The friends initially believed
she was talking to Marta,
00:21:38
but she became suspicious
when the messages began to start suggesting a threesome.
00:21:43
- The level of conduct and the content of
the communication caused some alarm
to Marta's friend
00:21:50
as it also included activity about engaging in
sexual conduct together. Marta's friend clearly thought
this was uncharacteristic
00:22:02
of Marta, and it raised
alarm bells in her head. She went straight
to her home address
00:22:07
to see if she was okay,
but nobody was at home. [dark tune] [dark tune] [somber music]
00:22:31
- In London in May, 2015, the body of 23-year-old
Marta Ligman was found folded
up in a suitcase
00:22:38
floating in London's
Grand Canal. The post-mortem revealed
bruises and fractures,
00:22:44
proving that she'd
been subjected to a long history
of physical abuse. The prime suspect was her
boyfriend, Tomasz Kocik.
00:22:54
Messages sent from
Marta's phone and computer before her body was found suggested she had
left her boyfriend and
returned to Poland,
00:23:02
but these didn't
seem in character. Friends and family
feared she was missing.
00:23:08
- It was quite common for
Marta to speak to her mum on a very regular
basis, if not daily.
00:23:14
So, obviously, Marta
wasn't doing that. - Her lack of contact with
friends and family, again,
00:23:20
against her demeanor,
uncharacteristic of Marta not to speak to her
mother every day.
00:23:26
- Then Marta's mum made
contact with Tomasz Kocik to establish what had happened,
00:23:31
and he explained that
Marta had left him, which also fitted with
messages that were being sent
00:23:38
purporting to be from Marta. - [Richard] But once
Marta's body was found, it became clear to police
00:23:45
that she could not have
sent those messages. She was already
dead in the canal. The only person with
access to Marta's devices
00:23:55
to send messages was Kocik. - Kocik made contact using
Marta's Facebook account.
00:24:02
He messaged one of her friends. The messaging was
uncharacteristic of Marta. It alerted her
friend immediately
00:24:10
that potentially, there
could be a problem. - So, there was a
clear attempt by Kocik
00:24:16
to mislead a number of
people that knew Marta and were clearly gonna ask
questions about where she was.
00:24:22
- He was just trying
to make it all go away, stop anyone reporting
her missing, and maybe give himself
some time to think.
00:24:34
In creating this
kind of web of lies, trying to convince everybody
maybe that Marta's still alive
00:24:42
so that he stops people
coming to look for her, 'cause he knows his
name's gonna be at the top
00:24:46
of the list if she is
found and identified. [foreboding music] - Kocik didn't
report Marta missing.
00:24:54
And despite her
mother phoning him and asking him to look for her and ask what he was doing
to try and trace her,
00:25:03
he didn't report her missing
until her body was found, which was around 10 days later.
00:25:09
[slow foreboding music] - This case attracted
heavy media attention. And as a result of that,
Kocik was alerted to the fact
00:25:22
that Marta's body
has been found, and that was the point that
he contacted the police
00:25:26
to report her as missing. In fact, members of
her family had tried to ask him to report
her as missing
00:25:34
previous to the date of
her body being discovered. Kocik simply refused to do so.
00:25:41
- The fact that he
hadn't reported a missing until Marta's body
was found in the canal
00:25:46
clearly caused suspicion and ultimately led to
the arrest of Kocik as a suspect for Marta's murder.
00:25:52
[foreboding tune] - [Richard] But under
police questioning, Kocik denied murdering Marta.
00:26:00
- He did not accept
that he killed Marta and denied his involvement
in the murder of Marta.
00:26:06
- The explanation
that Kocik gave was that he had come home from
work and found Marta dead.
00:26:12
He thought that Marta
had had a heart attack because he and Marta had
been taking amphetamines
00:26:18
in the preceding days. - Kocik was fearful that
he would be in trouble with the police for providing
her with those drugs.
00:26:26
His version of events
was that he panicked. - They'd been involved
in rough sex activity,
00:26:30
as he described it, and he felt that
those things combined would cause him to be blamed
effectively for her death.
00:26:40
- But did Marta's body support
Kocik's version of events? Kocik claimed that
Marta had died
00:26:47
from an amphetamine overdose, following days of
drug-fueled bondage sessions. And although internal
swabs were taken,
00:26:54
there was no evidence of
recent sexual activity. Amphetamines can be
detected in the bloodstream
00:27:00
for, on average, 48 hours
after being consumed, and on human hair, as long
as 90 days afterwards.
00:27:10
Some amphetamine
users take the drug through what is
called skin popping. These are subcutaneous
injections that
go into the tissue
00:27:18
rather than the blood vessels. And what we would see then is lots of ulcerated areas
on the legs and forearms,
00:27:26
but there was no evidence
of this on Marta's body. If she was injecting,
there would be track marks,
00:27:33
and there was no
evidence of that either. - He said that he came home and found Marta dead on the
sofa, and she had problems
00:27:43
and she was taking drugs and
she'd obviously overdosed. And the most classic
way to defend yourself
00:27:49
against killing somebody
you're supposed to love is to denigrate them in some way
00:27:53
and make them responsible and make you the innocent
victim of their awful behavior.
00:27:59
And that's what he did. [somber music] - [Richard] Kocik did, however, admit disposing of Marta's body.
00:28:13
- Eventually, as the
evidence unfolded and was presented to
him and his legal team,
00:28:17
he changed his
version of events. He admitted that he did conceal
her body in the suitcase.
00:28:26
- He confessed to the
police that what he then did was place Marta
into the suitcase.
00:28:31
He walked down the distance
of about half a mile and placed a suitcase
in the Grand Union Canal
00:28:37
near to Scrubs Lane. - The suitcase then traveled in the direction
of Little Venice
00:28:43
down the canal for a
significant period of time. - Scrubs Lane is
about two and a half,
00:28:52
maybe three miles, from
the Little Venice site where Marta's body
was ultimately found.
00:29:02
As a result of Kocik's account, one of the things that the
police will do is check
00:29:07
and try and corroborate
an account that's given. [camera whirs] That could include CCTV.
00:29:11
[audio distorts] The CCTV revealed
that Kocik had walked from the home address to
the Grand Union Canal,
00:29:18
a distance of about half a mile. [foreboding music] - He was seen
wheeling the suitcase
00:29:31
on his way to the canal along a number of streets past
commuters towards the canal,
00:29:39
carrying this heavy suitcase,
which was so heavy on CCTV. You can see that the
wheels were buckling.
00:29:45
[water splashes] He'd also taken a stick with him in attempt to
submerge the suitcase.
00:29:54
- And then shortly after that, he was seen again walking
back towards his home address,
00:29:59
this time without the suitcase. From the waist down, it was noticed on the CCTV
he appeared to be wet,
00:30:06
which would be
consistent with the fact that he had been in the canal, seeking to dispose
of the suitcase
00:30:11
in the way that he described. - This man didn't
have many resources. He didn't appear
to have a vehicle.
00:30:20
I think if he had a vehicle, he might not have
chosen the canal. Throwing a body into a canal
is a high-risk strategy
00:30:31
because bodies tend to be found when they're in bodies of
water that are quite small.
00:30:37
- [Richard] While CCTV footage
confirmed Kocik's story that he disposed of the body,
00:30:42
there was more to come. [mysterious music] - [Steve] You know, with
that extra understanding
00:30:51
of what the events were and
confirmed now by the CCTV, that enabled the
police to search areas
00:30:57
where they knew that
Kocik had traveled. And that led to the recovery of identity documents
belonging to Marta.
00:31:06
- Of great significance
was that en-route to and from the Canal, Marta's identification card
was found damaged and burnt.
00:31:14
Again, evidence of Kocik trying to conceal her identification
from the police. - And that confirmed
and corroborated
00:31:25
and supported the understanding of what had taken
place in Marta's death. [foreboding tune]
00:31:31
- [Richard] With evidence
that Kocik had tried to conceal Marta's identity, police charged him with murder.
00:31:39
[intense music] - I've prosecuted a number of
homicide cases over the years,
00:31:46
but this case particularly
stands out in my time on the homicide unit. - The court case was a
particularly horrifying one.
00:31:55
The prosecutor warned the jury that they were gonna hear
some horrendous details
00:32:01
and particularly, the detail
that she still may be alive when she went into the water.
00:32:07
[dark tune] [dark tune] [boat whirring]
[creepy music] - In May, 2015, Tomasz
Kocik was charged
00:32:24
with the murder of his
girlfriend, Marta Ligman. Her body had been found in
the Grand Union Canal earlier
00:32:30
in the year after a boat
owner spotted human hair coming out of a suitcase
floating in the water.
00:32:37
[zipper zipping] The post-mortem revealed a
history of domestic violence, but whilst her boyfriend
admitted disposing of her body,
00:32:45
he denied murder. He claimed she had died
of a drug overdose. Pathology proved that was a lie.
00:32:55
[slow piano music] Five months after his arrest, Kocik was brought before
the Old Bailey in London.
00:33:06
Representing the case for
the Crown Prosecution Service was Senior Prosecutor
Devi Kharran.
00:33:14
- I had been working on
this case for a long time to prepare the case for
present it at trial.
00:33:20
A homicide prosecution
requires a lot of preparation. We have to find as much
evidence as possible
00:33:28
to prove every element
of the offense of murder beyond reasonable doubt, to prove that Kocik was
the killer of Marta.
00:33:40
It was a very intense
atmosphere in the courtroom. There was a lot of press and media attention
surrounding this case.
00:33:48
- I attended court
when he faced trial. It was one I covered
from start to finish.
00:33:55
The case of Marta was
a very harrowing case, just the details of the
injury she suffered.
00:34:04
The prosecutor warned the jury that they were gonna hear
some horrendous details.
00:34:13
- It was very distressing
for friends and family to have to come to
court and listen
00:34:17
to the distressing details that were presented
about Marta's life. [somber music]
00:34:27
- [Richard] The prosecution
outlined the case against Kocik. - We relied on the
strength of the evidence
00:34:34
to present a clear and
coherent case to the jury. The evidence consisted
of various strands,
00:34:40
including CCTV evidence, to prove his movements at
the time of her killing, evidence of her identity card
00:34:49
that was found
burnt and damaged, and the pathological evidence that gave the police
the indication
00:34:58
as to how Marta's
injuries were sustained. He clearly ruled
out natural causes
00:35:05
as a result of her death. - [Richard] The court also
heard how the obsessive and violent Kocik
behaved towards Marta.
00:35:16
- We used the evidence
of her friends and family who provided strong evidence of a change of
demeanor in Marta.
00:35:23
Her behavior had changed. She became withdrawn, sad. She had visible facial injuries,
00:35:30
which caused her
friends and her manager significant concern
about Kocik' controlling
00:35:36
and coercive behavior. A man like Kocik is
gonna want somebody like Marta to fall for him,
00:35:42
so he's gonna present himself, you know, as the
perfect boyfriend. "You've met the one."
00:35:49
And he would use
all his manipulative
skills in doing that. Trouble with people
like Kocik is,
00:35:58
they can do that for a while, they can't keep it up, so they have to
get that commitment
00:36:04
from somebody like
Marta very, very quickly because they know it's
all gonna fall apart.
00:36:09
They know that their true self is gonna come out
very, very quickly. Kocik is such an extreme
example of a fixated,
00:36:19
obsessed, and very insecure man. He was entitled. "I own you. You're my property.
00:36:26
Don't you dare try and leave
me because you will pay." - [Richard] Kocik himself
decided not to take the stand,
00:36:35
but his legal team presented
his version of events. - Kocik claims he
returned home from work
00:36:46
to find Marta already dead. He said that he believed
Marta died of a heart attack
00:36:53
and thought he would get blamed. - Anybody's who's in court is going to try and
defend themselves.
00:37:03
They don't want to go to prison. And this has got a life
sentence on the end of it.
00:37:09
He had to have a story
for Marta being dead, so he picks another
implausible story
00:37:16
that Marta was a drug addict
and she had been taking drugs. Denigrating the victim and
making them the bad person
00:37:24
and you the victim, that
is incredibly common. - [Richard] The pathology
had conclusively proved
00:37:32
drugs played no part
in Marta's death. Kocik's case was falling apart. - So, his whole defense at court
that he just found her dead
00:37:44
and, for some reason, decided
to put her into a suitcase instead of in the paramedics,
00:37:48
I mean, it is all
absolutely ridiculous. And this was not a
sophisticated defense.
00:37:56
He's in a position now where
he's proven to be a liar. - Kocik, while in court, he
didn't show any remorse at all.
00:38:05
He was very cocky. And the sort of the lies he
told were very distressing for Marta's family,
claiming that, you know,
00:38:17
this had happened
during rough sex and, you know, that she'd
been taking drugs with him.
00:38:28
- And obviously distressing
for her friends and family to see Kocik in the dock.
00:38:32
In every homicide case
that we prosecute, we have the opportunity of
meeting the victim's families.
00:38:38
Marta's mother did provide
a victim impact statement, which was very, very sad.
00:38:46
- She was very tearful. She told how she was begging
this man to help look for her
00:38:53
when, all along, he was
the one who killed her. - [Richard] The text Kocik
sent to Marta's friends
00:38:58
were also read out in court. - Kocik sent messages
to Marta's friends to suggest that she
was still alive.
00:39:10
He wanted to make it
look like she'd left him. And when her mother was
begging him to look for her,
00:39:20
but he pretended that
she'd just run away and didn't wanna get
in touch with him.
00:39:25
- Initially, the evidence
from the telephones went against the
prosecution case because the evidence showed
that Marta's telephone was used
00:39:35
after the prosecution say her
body was placed in the canal. However, at trial, that evidence
00:39:43
assisted the case
for the prosecution because it proved that, in
fact, her phone was being used
00:39:49
by Kocik to create a false
trail for the officers. - [Richard] Kocik had proved to be a calculated
controlling liar,
00:39:59
but it was Marta's body that would deliver the
irrefutable evidence of her final moments.
00:40:07
The autopsy revealed that
sometime between the evening of the 29th of April
and the 1st of May,
00:40:13
Kocik beat Marta unconscious
in a sustained attack that could have lasted
minutes or hours
00:40:19
or possibly even days. When he thought she was dead, he wrapped her in
curtains and bin bags
00:40:26
and stuffed her into a suitcase with her head between her knees. He then dragged the case
half a mile to the canal
00:40:34
before dumping her in the water. So, how did Marta actually die? The widespread heavy
bruising tells us
00:40:42
all about her last hours. A bruise is just blood leaking
from damaged blood vessels,
00:40:49
but it requires pressure
in the bloodstream for that leakage to occur. Marta's body was just
covered in bruises,
00:40:56
and it was quite clear that
this could only have happened if her heart was still beating.
00:41:05
Although she was alive when
she received these injuries, it was the repetitive
blunt force trauma
00:41:11
to her torso and
legs that killed her. [intense foreboding music] - It's not clear exactly at
what point that took place,
00:41:21
but that could have taken place while she was in the suitcase, either when Kocik
was walking down
00:41:28
towards the canal or
indeed after the suitcase had been placed in the canal, which clearly raises
the possibility
00:41:34
that Marta was still alive
at either of those points. - Some of the expert
evidence showed that some
00:41:42
of the bruising on her body
could have been hit by a boat while she was still
alive in that suitcase.
00:41:51
He warned the jury not to think of the possibilities
around that. Obviously, it's hard not to.
00:42:00
- Something happened for him
to think that she was dead. I don't think that he thought
00:42:06
by putting her in a suitcase
that would kill her. I think he put her
in the suitcase
00:42:10
because he thought she was dead. He probably, at that point,
wasn't thinking straight.
00:42:15
He just knew he needed to
get rid of Marta's body. The thing is with
people like Kocik,
00:42:25
they use violence routinely. They know how far to go. They absolutely do
know how far to go.
00:42:31
The idea that they take it too
far one day and kill someone, really, there's not a
lot to support that.
00:42:37
They know when to stop. I think whatever the challenge
was that came from Marta,
00:42:43
it was enough that he took
it far enough to kill her, given himself permission
to kill her in fact,
00:42:49
and thought that he
had done exactly that. - [Richard] The jury saw
through Kocik's lies.
00:42:56
That pathology was damning. After deliberating
for just over a day, they rejected his defense.
00:43:03
[foreboding tune] - Tomasz Kocik was found
guilty of Marta's murder. He was convicted of murder
and he was sentenced
00:43:12
to 18 and a half years as a minimum sentence
recommendation of
his life sentence.
00:43:18
[foreboding tune] - Kocik was a very
violent and dangerous man. At trial, Kocik, from my
recollection, showed no remorse.
00:43:31
He maintained a
very cold demeanor as he sat in the dock
at the Old Bailey. After the jury had
delivered their verdict,
00:43:38
we were very satisfied that we had secured
justice for Marta, her family, and her friends,
00:43:47
and that is of
paramount importance in any homicide case. - I think this case
was a classic intimate
partner homicide.
00:43:59
Very quick, very intense. In some ways, it was different because Kocik was so extreme
in his control of Marta,
00:44:12
and I think everybody
noticed the changes in her, so you could almost watch this
playing out from a distance.
00:44:20
[mysterious music] - She'd obviously been in a
very abusive relationship. He was very controlling of her.
00:44:29
And instead of
breaking up with her, allowing her to go her own
way, he'd brutally beaten her
00:44:36
and stuffed her into a suitcase
and dumped her into a canal. Absolutely horrific.
00:44:42
- I've prosecuted a number of
homicide cases over the years, but this case particularly
stands out in my time
00:44:49
on the homicide unit. Marta Ligman was a young, happy, very kind, and caring young lady
00:44:58
who wanted to come to
London to start a new life. The truth of what
happened that night
00:45:04
was that Marta was subjected
to a violent and brutal attack by the man who she
loved and cared for.
00:45:17
That particular point at where
Marta's body was discovered is a part of the
canal in Little Venice
00:45:23
that I visit frequently. And every time I visit
that point at the canal, I always stop and
think about Marta.
00:45:36
- Tomasz Kocik had mentally
and physically controlled Marta throughout their relationship.
00:45:41
It ended with her murder. He tried to claim that Marta
had died of a drug overdose
00:45:48
and that he was
innocent of her killing, but the pathologist's
report made sure
00:45:53
the jury saw through his lies. Although she never
spoke out in life, in death, her body was
able to reveal the truth
00:46:02
about what had happened, and put Kocik behind bars. [intense dramatic music]