Anita C. Dies, Third Victim of Veliko Gradiste Massacre

Anita C. (46) died on September 8 in hospital, ten days after being shot inside her family’s home in Veliko Gradiste. Her death raised the number of people killed in the August 29 attack to three.

The attack happened on Saturday, August 29, at the home of Anita C.’s parents. The attacker was her own brother, B. K., who shot her in the head after an argument over family property. According to Telegraf, the shooting came after Anita, in tears, asked her brother to wait before dividing the estate. Her brother refused.

Despite her wounds, Anita managed to make it out onto the street. There, lying in a pool of blood, she was spotted by a girl riding her bicycle, who called neighbors for help. At that moment, while his sister lay bleeding on the pavement, the attacker walked roughly 300 meters, on foot, to the house where her husband, S. C. (48), and daughter, J. C. (19), lived.

In that house, he first killed S. C., a firefighter by profession, finding him in bed and shooting him in the head. He then went upstairs, where he killed J. C. (19), the couple’s only child. S. C.’s mother, who was also in the house, sustained life-threatening injuries. Once he believed the job was done, B. K. killed himself.

Motive: inheritance after their father’s death

According to what is known so far, the attack grew out of a long-running conflict over family property. The father of Anita C. and B. K., known locally by the nickname “Toma Otrov” (Toma the Poison), died in April 2026. His will excluded his son entirely from the inheritance.

That very document, stained with blood, was found at the scene of the first shooting, in the parents’ house. Based on everything known so far, the dispute over who would control the property had dragged on for months before it turned into an attack that left three people dead.

Residents of Veliko Gradiste who had known the family for years said they were still in disbelief ten days on. According to Mondo, they told reporters:

“This is a catastrophe. As soon as the man died, the fighting over the house started. His daughter buried him because he wasn’t on good terms with his son. He came with the intention of killing them all. Is a house worth more than three lives?”

Separate funerals, the killer buried alone

Anita C., her husband and her daughter were not buried on the same day. S. C. and J. C. were buried on September 2, while Anita was still being treated in hospital at the time. Her funeral follows her death on September 8.

B. K. was buried separately, in Pozarevac, with no neighbors or colleagues present. Unlike the funerals of his victims, his burial passed in silence.

The Veliko Gradiste massacre, in which one family lost three members within minutes, remains one of the most severe family killings recorded in this part of eastern Serbia this year. Anita C.’s death does not formally close the investigation, as the circumstances and sequence of events are still being reconstructed from evidence gathered at the scene.

The family home where S. C. and J. C. were killed has stood locked and empty ever since, according to Telegraf.