Sibenik: Duje E., 24, Kills Man From Biograd With Knife
A 28 year old man from Biograd was stabbed to death in a rented apartment in Sibenik, and a 22 year old woman was seriously wounded. Duje E., 24, already known to police, was arrested high on drugs.
A rented apartment in Sibenik was the scene of a crime overnight between Monday and Tuesday that, right at the start of autumn, reminded the Croatian coast how thin the line is between a night out in an Adriatic apartment and tragedy. A 28 year old man from Biograd was stabbed to death, and a 22 year old woman was seriously wounded. The suspect is Duje E., 24, a man the Sibenik police had already had on their books more than once.
The alert came in through emergency medical services, though sources disagree on the exact timing. The Croatian outlet Index reports that police received the call around 2:30 a.m., while Klix puts it at 2 a.m. When officers reached the address, they found the young man’s lifeless body, drained of blood from stab wounds, and a woman with multiple injuries. She was rushed to Sibenik General Hospital, where her condition was critical for a time.
After the attack, the suspect fled to his home address. Police found him there only about twenty minutes later, in a severe drug induced state. Investigators who entered the apartment found chaos: furniture and belongings were scattered and smashed throughout, and the assumption is that the suspect, under the influence of drugs, had been tearing furniture apart. Because of his physical and mental state, police could not even question him that morning, let alone open a formal interrogation.
Duje E. is no stranger to Croatian police. In past years he was reported multiple times for property crimes, theft and drug abuse. Last year he spent time in pretrial detention over ordering drugs on the so called darknet. A significant quantity of drugs was also found in the apartment where the crime took place, reportedly enough for dozens of people, which raises the question of whether the victims and the attacker had been using drugs together before the attack.
The investigation is being led by the County State Attorney’s Office in Sibenik, working with the Sibenik-Knin Police Department. A request for a search of the apartment used by the suspect has been filed with the competent court, and an autopsy of the murdered man has been ordered to establish the exact circumstances of his death. The State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia (DORH) said in a statement:
“The County State Attorney’s Office in Sibenik, together with officers of the Sibenik-Knin Police Department, continues carrying out further measures and actions within its authority in order to establish all relevant facts and circumstances of this event.”
Proceedings are underway for the criminal offenses of murder and attempted murder, and the presumption of innocence applies to Duje E. until a final verdict.
What exactly triggered the confrontation in which the 24 year old reached for a knife remains unclear. Investigators say the leading theory is that drugs were being used together in the rented apartment, but until the suspect is able to answer questions, the sequence of events that led to the killing remains a reconstruction based on the evidence found at the scene. The autopsy findings and the results of the apartment search are expected to fill in the picture over the coming days of what happened that night in an apartment in a city center that otherwise lives off tourism.
Despite the border that separates Sibenik from Serbia, the case is a reminder that rented apartments on the Croatian coast, where visitors from the region also stay every summer and throughout the season, are places where a night out and drug abuse can turn into tragedy within minutes.
