Poland Monika Bielawska, 16 mos, Legnica, 16 July 1994

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Tajemnica zaginięcia malutkiej Monisi. To stało się 29 lat temu w Legnicy. Policjant wie jedno ...

Identity particulars​

Family name	BIELAWSKA
Forename	MONIKA
Gender	Female
Date of birth	25/03/1993 (30 years old)
Place of birth	LEGNICA, Poland
Nationality	Poland
Place of disappearance	LEGNICA
Date of disappearance	16/07/1994
Issuing country	Poland
Distinguishing marks and characteristics	Round pale red birth mark, 2 cm in diameter, on the left foot under and at the back of heel.

Physical description​

Height	0.84 metres
Colour of hair	Blond
Colour of eyes	Blue

Circumstances of disappearance

Monika is the result of the relationship between Robert and Magda. In 1992, Robert married Magdalena (18 years old). They moved in with the girl's parents because the girl, aged 21, did not have a permanent job. He earned his living trading gold in the local Legnica market.

When he discovered that Mrs. Magda was pregnant, he tried to persuade his wife to have an abortion. His wife categorically refused. Less than a year later, little Monika was born.

From the moment the child was born, Robert B. had negative feelings towards him. He did not take the baby in his arms, did not show any feelings, did not hug him. When Monika approached Robert B., he kicked and pinched her. The child was afraid of his own father. When she saw him, she hid her face with her hands.

The father repeatedly said that the right solution would be to sell little Monica for dollars. However, Ms. Magdalena and her parents never took these suggestions seriously. Once he even blurted out that "we have to sell this kid."

On the day of her disappearance, little Monika's father showed himself more interested than ever in his daughter. Monika, then 16 months old, had a cold and fever. Worried, his grandparents decided to take him to the doctor. When they left the house, Robert ran after them. He suggested that Ms. Juli and Mr. Zygmunt go back and get the wheelchair and accompany them to the clinic. The grandparents were surprised by the father's sudden concern for the child, but they did not suspect anything unusual.

When they arrived at a nearby clinic, the father was gone for about half an hour. After leaving the doctor, Robert was waiting for them and he was the one driving the wheelchair. They decided to buy medicine for the sick child at a nearby pharmacy. When they entered the pharmacy, the man walked away with the child towards a nearby market place. When he did not return home the same day, Ms. Magda, at the request of her parents, reported the matter to the police. However, the search yielded no results.

On January 10, 1995, the Legnica public prosecutor's office decided to file a complaint against Robert B. and issued an arrest warrant against him, also an international arrest warrant. It turned out that the girl's father lived in Austria. When he was captured by Vienna police officers, he was detained there until extradition proceedings were completed. On September 29, 1997, he was handed over to Polish law enforcement authorities.

During numerous hearings at the prosecution, he presented different versions of what happened to little Monika. Each of them was carefully checked by investigators.
When he was questioned again, he told investigators that he had had an accident in the Czech Republic and that Monika had died. After verification, it turned out that Robert B. was lying.

Another time he testified that he entered a store and left a stroller with a child in front of the entrance, when the girl fell out of the stroller he was afraid she was dead. He was supposed to bury the child's body in the Złotoryja forest. During a visit to the site, he indicated the place where the bodies were allegedly hidden. The area indicated by the man was checked several times by police tracking dogs used to detect bodies. Once again it turned out he was lying.

Investigators gathered a lot of evidence that the father had sold the child to an unknown person. In April 2009, Robert B. was convicted by the Legnica District Court and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

 

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Monika zaginÄÅa 29 lat temu. Matka caÅy czas czeka na to, by przytuliÄ swojÄ córkÄ

During the investigation it was found that the child was afraid of her father - she covered her eyes when she saw him, she had pinch marks on her neck, the girl was also kicked and once hit in the face in the presence of her mother. On December 17, 1993, the man applied to have his daughter included in his passport. Based on this document, he could cross the border with her. Magdalena did not object because she did not suspect anything wrong. The family was planning to move to Italy and their passport had recently expired. She didn't even mind when her husband told her, "Soon no one will see her."

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After leaving the doctor, Robert was the one driving the wheelchair. On the way, the grandparents wanted to buy medicine for their granddaughter. At that moment, the father called an unknown number from a telephone booth and, taking advantage of the grandparents' inattention, suddenly disappeared with the child. At home, the grandparents noticed that their son-in-law's passport and clothes were missing.

(..)

The man returns four days later, but alone, without his daughter. He told a friend he had sold the girl to “old people.” Although he was reported to the police, after returning from the Czech Republic, the girl's father was not arrested and did not return to his in-laws. On July 23, he called Magdalena and arranged to meet his wife at 11 p.m. at Kozi Staw in Legnica. He then told the woman that Monika was dead.

(..)

Robert later confessed to Magdalena that he had entrusted the child to gold merchants in Katowice. The woman then had to retract her testimony to the police. This was the condition set by her husband to help her search for her daughter among traffickers. The mother tried to look for the girl in Katowice, but when asked about Monika, her husband replied that "they might have other children." Then the man said goodbye to Magdalena and fled abroad.

Despite this, he did not break contact with Magdalena. During numerous telephone conversations, he convinced her that the child was outside Poland, but contact with the people to whom he had entrusted him was "difficult". He also promised that he would "give her a second child" and that the search for Monika would resume when Magdalena joined him and left the country.

(...)

"Based on the results of psychological tests, it was clearly established that he was capable of acting to sell the child. Experts do not exclude that if these plans failed, it could contribute to the death of the child. The main motive for such action could be a primitive desire to eliminate the source of obstacles to the implementation of plans and intentions" wrote experts in the assessment cited by “Fakt”

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Robert B. was accused of kidnapping his daughter and selling her to a stranger. The man initially pleaded guilty and added that he had received 20 million old zlotys (2,000 PLN) for the child. Another time it was supposed to be 20,000 shillings. The sales intermediaries were supposed to be merchants from Katowice who were supposed to take Monika to Vienna. The man's actions were allegedly motivated by "a difficult family situation, lack of housing and conflicts with his in-laws". He also stated that he was not interested in the fate of his daughter.

(..)
Searches carried out in Austria failed to confirm that a "dealer" resided at the places indicated by Robert B.. No gold dealer matching the descriptions provided by the detainee was found. The forest was searched several times - also with the participation of the accused - but no trace was found to confirm this lead.
Little Monika was not found in orphanages or adoption and care centers.