An American man who is accused of killing his elderly mother and dismembering her before putting the parts into a river testified in court in Poland that he poses “no danger to society.”
Karl Pfeffer, 28, was detained by the FBI on an international arrest order in October of last year after escaping Warsaw, Poland, where he and his mother Gretchen had resided.
Pfeffer smiled at court cameras as he entered the courtroom in the Polish capital and said, “I don’t want to seem like a crazy in the media, I don’t want to be the next Jeffrey Dahmer.”
The 28-year-old is described as a “oddball” who lived off his 71-year-old mother, a rich widow whose corpse hasn’t been discovered, and took up narcotics.
Allow me to acknowledge that I buried the corpse in the river and explain why this individual is dead, he proceeded to the court.
“My mother would be executed in front of everyone if I were to reveal what she did in the USA.”
In Seattle, she would be crucified.
Pfeffer said that his connection with his mother “was the one that went sour” out of the “hundreds of wonderful relationships [he maintains] all around the globe.”
She changed completely from being very polite and refined to being really rude, he said.
“I don’t want to be seen as a killer and a psychopath,” you could say.
I really want to see the beach again. I pose no danger to society.
Gretchen Pfeffer, his mother, was remembered as being “social, clever, and chatty.”
After her spouse passed away in 2016, she relocated from Seattle to Poland with the goal of reclaiming her Polish heritage. She resided in the affluent neighborhood of Zoliborz.
She spent her time going to see friends and neighbors, as well as keeping in regular communication with family members who lived back in the United States.
Her connection with her son had supposedly gotten tense, according to many who knew her.
According to witness accounts, he was a heroin addict who refused to work and depended on her for financial assistance. Additionally, he began acting violently against her.
One of her acquaintances allegedly “told police that Gretchen Pfeffer confided in her that Karl Pfeffer had battered her about the head with a frying pan during one of their confrontations,” according to a terrifying court document.
He began using her credit cards after they left their shared flat, according to Polish investigators, “until they were banned by his relatives.”
He once requested that his then-girlfriend, I.B.K, phone the bank and attempt to unlock the accounts using his mother’s paperwork.
Investigators noted that when Gretchen was last heard from on March 31, 2020, “all in-person communication with Gretchen’s pals ceased, and the rare social media post or message received from her phone was markedly different from Gretchen’s regular manner of speech and the way she wrote.”
Police came to the conclusion that “on March 31 or April 1, 2020, Karl Pfeffer murdered his mother Gretchen in her Warsaw flat” after discovering her belongings stolen.
Further research found that Pfeffer had purchased a handsaw and duct tape on April 1.
His phone’s log-ins, as well as data from Uber and myTaxi, further indicated that he had visited Warsaw’s biggest river, the Vistula, two days later.
Gretchen posted that she was in Seattle on her Facebook site on April 4.
However, a review of the flight records revealed that there was no evidence of her departing Poland or coming to the United States.
After going into hiding, Pfeffer got in touch with a relative in September and confessed.
‘On September 13, 2020, officers of the District Police Headquarters received information that Karl Pfeffer had contacted his half-sister, Michelle Pfeffer, and informed her that he had killed his mother, dismembered her corpse, and thrown her in pieces into the river,’ reads his arrest warrant, which was made public by the US Attorney’s office.
On October 15, 2020, he finally departed Poland from the city of Gdansk, more than 200 miles from Warsaw, according to flight data.
He then took out for Amsterdam before boarding a further trip to the US.
When Pfeffer was located six months later and interrogated by FBI agents, he admitted to the murder and described how he dissected the body, placed the parts in six bags, and dropped them in the Vistula River.
Police haven’t located the mother, however, thus yet.
The things I dropped into the Vistula River were extremely tightly wrapped, Pfeffer said when he first appeared in court in December of last year.
“No odors. zero leaks I purchased so many colognes and air fresheners that they made my bags smell like a typical tourist: mint.
In a remarkable turn of events, Pfeffer’s attorneys are now pleading for his release due to a “lack of proof” and his “poor health.”
“The evidence does not give basis for any of the charges against Karl to be justified,” said Grzegorz Roman, speaking on behalf of the defense.
“It would be simpler to discover at least some of this corpse’s pieces if the body had genuinely been dissected.”
It follows logically that dismembering a corpse raises the likelihood of discovering at least one of its components.
But no component could be located.
He said, “About two years in pre-trial prison has had a detrimental effect on his mental health.
Unfortunately, this has an impact on the accused’s health.
“He does not handle being detained for such a long time appropriately.”
“I am asking that the preventative measure, which has been in place for over two years, be repealed.”
Pfeffer was a “flight risk” since the allegations against him carry a life sentence, according to Judge Agnieszka Domaska, who denied the appeal.
On February 10, the trial will continue.
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