Mateusz Kawecki

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Polish Police Lubelskie (PROVINCE)

Death Location:

Hutków, Poland

Summary:

In 2018, 30-year-old Mateusz Kawecki, a Polish man working in Hanover, Germany, went missing while driving to meet his pregnant fiancée in Lipia Góra, Poland. Six months later, his decomposed, decapitated body was discovered in his family's barn in Hutków, eastern Poland. The police ruled it a suicide, though his family continues to seek answers, questioning the circumstances and lack of investigation.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Death:

On March 28th 2018, Mateusz Kawecki received a call that his long distance fiancé was in labor. At the time he was working in Hanover, Germany and his wife was in labor in Lipia Góra, Poland. Mateusz set out driving his 1998 BMW 525 at around 11:30 pm from Hanover to Lipia Góra, on March 28, 2018, a journey of 402 miles (647 km). He was due to arrive at around 8-9 am the following morning, March 29. His father said he had called him around 10:30 AM on March 29th and Mateusz told him that he was stuck in heavy traffic in Szczecin, Poland which would put him about 133 miles (214 km) from his destination. He had also sent a text to his fiancé around this time to tell her he would arrive in about two hours. By the time Mateusz hadn't arrived by that evening on the 29th, his mother attempted to report her son missing but police wouldn't take the report at that time and advised the family to give him a longer time to turn up. Five months later on September 12, 2018, a neighbor comes to Mateusz's mother's house in Hutków, Poland to ask about their barn, as a terrible smell had been emanating from it since July and they thought it was probably a dead animal. Upon closer inspection, he finds out it's actually a dead human body - a severed head and a torso. There are also two nooses hanging from the roof and a backpack on the floor.

Additional Details:

Later that evening, Mateusz's mother went to the police, but they discouraged her from filing a missing persons report as it was too early, and they believed Mateusz would likely turn up. But by early April, the family finally reported Mateusz as missing in both Germany and Poland. The German police refused to investigate as they believed the Polish authorities were on the case. Katarzyna Piotrkowicz said that investigators claimed that Mateusz never crossed the border as CCTV monitoring at the border crossing indicated he had not entered Poland. Frustrated with the efforts of the police investigation, Mateusz's family begin their search for clues on the disappearance and check the entire route, going into side streets, checking with gas station staff, asking for video surveillance, going around markets in towns near the border with Mateusz's picture and posting posters with his image. DNA analysis was conducted, and it was confirmed that the remains were indeed Mateusz's. The Police and Public Prosecutor maintain that the death was a suicide and refuse to investigate further despite appeals and efforts by the family. They believed that Mateusz had planned his death and said there was no evidence of foul play. His sister, Katarzyna, was convinced that someone had staged his death and placed his body there to cover up a murder. The attic in the barn was visible from the ground and the family said that they used the barn throughout the summer of 2018, so it seemed very unlikely they wouldn't notice a hanging body, never mind the smell of the rotting corpse. Mateusz's cousin Edyta Dąbska said, "It is very strange because we have been to this barn many times during this time, the door was wide open and nobody noticed anything. The prosecutor claims that he was hanging there, but we do not think so, because we simply did not see him there." Two nooses, bloody clothing, his phone, and a backpack were found nearby, but his car and keys were missing. Inside his backpack, there is a Polish water bottle with cigarette butts inside and an orange juice box - Mateusz's family all claim that he never drank orange juice (it's implied he disliked it). Mateusz never got to hold his daughter, who was born just six days after his disappearance.

Case Last Updated:

Aug 10, 2026