MISSING PERSON
CASE #: 1994-58
Monika Bielawska
Status:
Open
Date of Last Contact:
Date of Last Contact:
Missing From:
Legnica, Poland
Summary:
Monika Bielawska zaginęła 16 lipca 1994 roku. Dziewczynka miała wtedy zaledwie 16 miesięcy. Her father was sentenced to 15 years in prison for abduction and sale of his daughter, but the girl has never been found. The case remains one of the most shocking unsolved criminal cases in Poland.
Vital Statistics
Circumstances of Disappearance:
On Tuesday, July 16, 1994, Monika awoke with high fever. Her grandparents, for whom she was the apple of their eye, decided to take her to see a doctor. Her father Robert offered to help with this. On the way back, the grandparents stopped at a pharmacy. The father with the girl was supposed to wait outside. A few minutes later, the caregivers noticed that the granddaughter had disappeared along with the father. She was last seen in the center of Legnica, under a pharmacy, with her father. He resurfaced a few days later. He admitted to the mother of the child that he had taken her to the Czech Republic, where she died in a car accident. Later he changed his version of events several times. He claimed he left her in the care of traders in Katowice or sold her.
Additional Details:
He was arrested in Austria in 1997. He was sentenced in Legnica and upheld by the Appellate Court in Wroclaw to 15 years imprisonment for abduction and sale of the girl. Before the trial, he was released from arrest. He took advantage of the situation and fled to Austria again. Robert B. remains imprisoned and is scheduled for release on September 10, 2027. The fate of Monika Bielawska remains unknown. In April 2020, a woman living in the USA contacted the international search group Missing International, as she possibly could be the person who disappeared nearly 30 years ago in Legnica. DNA testing excluded this possibility. According to investigators, Monika Bielawska was most likely sold to a childless family in another country and is completely unaware that she is not the biological child of those raising her. Everything suggests she became a victim of classic human trafficking – a crime practically unreported in Poland in 1994. Police continue to treat the case as open, but only her father knows the truth about what happened to Monika Bielawska.
Case Last Updated:
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Share what you learnTimeline of Events
Court trial begins; Robert Bielawski sentenced to 15 years imprisonment
Robert Bielawski arrested in Austria
Father resurfaces without Monika
Monika Bielawska disappears from outside a pharmacy in Legnica's city center with her father
Associated Persons
Zygmunt M. (Grandfather) - Deceased
Robert B. (Father) - Living
Julia M. (Grandmother) - Living
Magdalena B. (Mother) - Living
Family Tree
Why is this important?Missing person
Father
Mother
Paternal Grandfather
Paternal Grandmother
Maternal Grandfather
Maternal Grandmother
Paternal Grandfather's Mother
Paternal Grandfather's Father
Paternal Grandmother's Mother
Paternal Grandmother's Father
Maternal Grandfather's Mother
Maternal Grandfather's Father
Maternal Grandmother's Mother
Maternal Grandmother's Father
Paternal Grandfather's Mother
Paternal Grandfather's Father
Paternal Grandmother's Mother
Paternal Grandmother's Father
Maternal Grandfather's Mother
Maternal Grandfather's Father
Maternal Grandmother's Mother
Maternal Grandmother's Father
Paternal Grandfather
Paternal Grandmother
Maternal Grandfather
Maternal Grandmother
Father
Mother
Missing Person
Missing Person
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