Czech serial killers may have murdered many more, say police

POLICE fear a couple in the Czech Republic who have been revealed as the biggest serial killers in the country’s history may have murdered many more than the eight people they have admitted to killing.

Jaroslav Stodola, 37, and his 34-year-old wife Dana have confessed to police to murdering eight pensioners in a grisly two-year killing spree across the country.

The pair were arrested months ago after a robbery in which they gagged and bound a man before making off with all his money.

But subsequent police investigations revealed the pair had murdered elderly people for money, tricking their way into houses and then sometimes torturing them when they refused to reveal where they kept cash.

Police said the pair would kill whenever they ran out of cash. Police had initially ruled the pensioners’ deaths as either accidents or suicides. After each murder the Stodolas would then make the killings appear like suicides, officers said. Some of the victims’ bodies had to be exhumed and re-examined after interviews with the pair.

Shelved investigations into similar deaths are being reopened across the country as officers fear the couple could have killed more people.

One 78-year-old man who survived an encounter with the alleged mass murderers, identified only as Josef P, told local paper Blesk: “They rang at my doorbell asking for water.

“The woman then collapsed and claimed she was pregnant. The man then put a knife to my neck and pushed me inside the house,” he said.

The couple locked Josef P in his cellar and ransacked the house for cash. They left after failing to find any money.

The couple’s victims include three elderly people from the village of Slavosov, central Czech Republic, where the Stodolas occasionally stayed with their grandmother.

Neighbours said they had been fooled by the couple’s outward behaviour for most of the time and the pair always made an effort to get on well with other people in the village.

One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “They always said hello to people and they tried to have friendly relationships with everyone.”

The Stodolas told people in the village that they were unemployed but then would leave for supposed work producing necklaces in another town and then return with lots of money.

A waiter at a bar in Slavosov said: “There were times when they did not have much money because they would count every penny when paying the bill but then suddenly they would spend loads of money.”