Warning: Disturbing content
Swiss authorities have revealed that a former Miss Switzerland finalist was strangled to death and brutally dismembered by her husband, who then “puréed” her body in a blender.
Kristina Joksimovic, 38, was found murdered in her home in Binningen, near Basel, Switzerland, in February.
Her 41-year-old husband, who was only referred to as “Thomas” in local media reports, was detained but had appealed for his release, but on Wednesday a federal court in Lausanne rejected the appeal after he confessed to the murder.
Revealing chilling new facts about the murder, the judgement said ongoing investigations had revealed “specific indications of mental illness” in the case. According to Swiss media outlet BZ Basel.
Joksimovic's brutally murdered body was discovered on the evening of 13 February.
The model's husband and father of her two daughters admitted to killing her in March but said he did so in self-defense after she had previously attacked him with a knife.
However, medical experts found no evidence of self-defense and determined her cause of death was strangulation.
According to the autopsy report obtained by the media, Joksimovic's body was then dismembered with a jigsaw, a knife and gardening shears.
Her body parts were then chopped up with a hand blender, “puréed” and dissolved in a chemical solution, according to the report.
Thomas was arrested the day after her body was discovered, but a month before his arrest he told investigators that he discovered her dead and, in a panic, dismembered her body in the laundry room.
In an update on Wednesday, prosecutors said Thomas displayed “an extraordinary level of criminal energy, lack of empathy and cold-bloodedness after murdering his wife” and then trying to cover it up.
Prosecutors said he had previously strangled his wife, and a former partner alleged he also grabbed a beauty pageant winner by the throat and slammed her head against a wall.
Joksimovic was the winner of Miss Northwest Switzerland and was a finalist in Miss Switzerland in 2007. 20 min.
She later ran her own business as a catwalk coach and coached model Dominique Rinderknecht at the 2013 Miss Universe competition.
“It's awful, I'm really shocked,” Christa Ligozzi, a former Miss Switzerland who was close to Joksimovic, told the outlet after the murder.
“My thoughts are with her two daughters. She was a beautiful, kind-hearted woman,” Ligozzi said.
Thomas was a successful entrepreneur and his family lived in a large house with a beautiful view overlooking Basel.
According to 20 Minutes, they presented themselves as a picture-perfect family on social media, and just weeks before Joksimovic's death, she posted photos to Instagram of her and Thomas on a “couples getaway” to Lake Lucerne.
