The disappearance of the Bogdansky family from Starua Gora! 20 years ago in the spring 5 people disappeared without a trace!
The mystery of the missing Bogdański family from Starowa Góra is one of the most mysterious cases in the Łódź Police Department. Five people lost. Police say there has been no such disappearance in Poland since the end of World War II.
In April 2003, Krzysztof Bogdanski, his wife Bozyna, his mother Danuta, and his two children, Maguzia and Jakob, were last seen.
– We still believe they are alive, – their families said a few years ago. Every phone call or doorbell rang gave them hope. This hope also appeared when they opened the mailbox. Especially before Christmas. But since April 2003, there has been no phone call, no card, no letter, no message. Then Bożena speaks to her sister Danuta one last time. I called the missing person. Bozena said she was in trouble. But she doesn’t want to talk about her problems over the phone. She was going to tell when they met. Danuta went to her sister, but did not find her.
Later, Tadeusz, father of Danuta and Bożena, came to Starowa Góra. He met his son-in-law. He explained to him that his daughter had left for Wroclaw. The Bogdańskis were to set up a tourism office, and a training course was organized there. Bożena was supposed to take part in it. She took her children with her: 16-year-old Maguzia and 12-year-old Cuba. By the way, they were supposed to visit Wroclaw and its surroundings.
Krzysztof was still on the phone with his sister-in-law. From Wroclaw they were to go to Germany for Christmas, to a mutual friend of his and his wife. Danuta calmed down, not thinking that this was the last time she spoke to Krzysztof.
A week after Bożena and the children left, Krzysztof was seen in Starowa Góra. A neighbor said she spoke to him on Good Friday through the fence. She did not notice anything strange in his behavior. He also told her that Bożena and the children were in Wroclaw. His mother was supposed to be staying with friends outside Lodz. He himself was painting the walls in the attic that day…
Easter passed, and the Bogdańskis gave no sign of life. Concerned, Danuta called a friend from Germany with whom Bogdansky was to spend Christmas. They weren’t there. Then she reported the disappearance of her family to the police. That was May 8, 2003.
A police officer of the criminal department at the headquarters of the regional police in Łódź, who conducted this case during his many years of work in the police, has never encountered such invisibility.
“We’ve put a lot of decent police work into solving the mystery, but the effects are bad so far,” the policeman told us. Their case is five volumes of police files, two to three hundred pages each.
Many banks and prosecutors are interested in finding Krzysztof Bogdański
The Bogdansk family was an ordinary family. Never in police records. Bożena and Krzysztof met at the School of Communication Technology. School love ended in 1985 with a wedding. Two years later, Małgorzata was born, and after another four years – Jakub. At first, they lived in the center of Łódź, but decided to build a house in Starowa Góra on Bożena’s parents’ plot of land.
They have succeeded quite well. Christopher ran the company. Import computer parts from abroad. Interest boomed. They built a house, bought a Volvo S70, worth tens of thousands of zlotys at that time. Children studied in private schools. Małgosia was in the last class of Gimnazjum im Catholic. John Paul II in Łódź, Cuba attended the fifth grade of the elementary school of the scientific association “Edukacja”.
Happiness did not last forever. The Polish market is beginning to be flooded with computers imported from China. Krzysztof’s one-man company could not beat the competition. Financial problems began. Then he started trading pirated software for PlayStation and Wizja TV on Exchange of electronic equipment at the Lodz Sports Club stadium. The problems were getting worse and the Bogdanskys still wanted to live as they were used to.
They took out loans and borrowed money from friends and relatives. Krzysztof also started playing in the online financial stock market, where he wasn’t always lucky. The police calculated that before his disappearance, his debt could have been up to 1 million zlotys. There are those who claim that the debt was much greater. Some deny that they lent him the money, although the documents say otherwise.
The officers know the cases of Krzysztof’s friends, from whom he wanted to take money in order to invest it profitably. Those who have not yet decided can sleep peacefully today. It is not even known how many people Krzysztof lured with the prospect of more money. Shortly before the disappearance, the Bogdańskis made a maximum discount on credit cards, among which were gold cards as well.
What happened to Bogdanskis? The police considered all possibilities. They started with the worst, which was that the family was killed. In their home, biological experiments were conducted using UV lamps. The entire plot of land has been excavated. Thermal imaging cameras and sensors were used. Body-searching dogs scanned the extensive area around the Bogdański estate, but no traces were found. The police also ruled out a so-called prolonged suicide.
For what purpose would Krzysztof Bogdański collect the money? the investigating officer asked.
Cops are more inclined to a different solution to the mystery. In their opinion, the disappearance of the family was carefully planned. They died to start a new life.
A police officer from the crime department claimed in an interview that it was no coincidence that they had collected such a large sum of money. It was not an amount that could be quickly spent. Before it disappeared, Krzysztof Bogdański sold his Volvo for 60,000 PLN.
Soon after the family’s disappearance, it emerged that several banks were very interested in finding Krzysztof, as were his wife and mother. Several loans were taken against the house in Starowa Góra. When the Bogdańskis took out loans, there was no central debt registry yet, so it was possible to get several loans for a single home mortgage. They were taken in by: Krzysztof, his wife and his mother.
Several public prosecutor’s offices in Lodz are interested in this case. At the request of the banks, they are filing fraud cases against the family. International arrest warrants have been issued for Krzysztof, Bozena and Danuta. They are sought after not only in Poland, but throughout Europe.
Police officers checked whether they had left Poland by plane or ferry, as personal tickets were required. They did not buy such tickets, at least not under their own name.
They also did not obtain Canadian or American visas. They also did not receive the so-called green card. It is not known whether they left Poland on the basis of original documents. It is known that the mother of 66-year-old Krzysztof (at the time of her disappearance) did not have a passport at all. A few years ago, the woman had a stroke. – Her face was slightly contorted after that, but she walked and spoke normally, – said a neighbor.
Krzysztof was very close to his mother. She raised him on her own for many years, so it was no surprise that he took her with him. But here, too, the police showed vigilance. They examined all Polish retirement homes and social welfare homes. They checked whether the son had not put his mother in a safe place before his possible escape. Danuta Bogdańska was not found in any of the institutions.
Polish policemen asked their colleagues from Germany for help. The Bogdańskis were known to have family and friends abroad. No traces were found there either, although the liaison officer of the Polish Embassy in Berlin took part in the search. Only once during these many years did the police receive a signal from Silesia. Someone was supposed to see Bogdansky. It turned out to be a false drive. The man only looked like Krzysztof.
The Bogdański family even asked a fortune teller for help. He told them they were alive, but they didn’t want to contact anyone.
The Bogdańskis’ friends and family do not fully believe the version the police assume. They state that Krzysztof was a cheerful and sociable man. On the other hand, he subjugated his family. The wife and children knew that if Dad said something, it must be so.
Immediately after the loss was reported, their house inside looked as if the children had just left for school, the parents for work, and the grandmother for the store. Phone charger left in boy’s room. There are toothbrushes and toiletries in the bathroom. Małgosia left her notebook with phones, wallet and even a journal. Danuta Bogdanska has not taken her medication. The hard drives have been removed from the computers, so the police don’t even know what websites Krzysztof surfs on the Internet.
The Bogdański family even asked a fortune teller for help. He told them they were alive, but they didn’t want to contact anyone.
