Vlado Tanevski-The Hunter Who Became the Hunted

June 24, 2008

In a very strange and bizarre case out of the Balkans, Vlado Tanevski, 56, a married father of two and a respected crime reporter/journalist from Macedonia, was arrested late on Friday, June 20, 2008 at his home in Kicevo after police recovered material evidence that tied the veteran crime writer to homicides that he had investigated and subsequently written about.  Additional evidence related to the cases being investigated was discovered inside his car, and DNA testing determined the presence of his sperm on at least two of his alleged victims.  The police also found a large collection of pornographic material at his home, as well as weapons.

According to a number of European published reports, the murders that Tanevski is accused of committing and then writing about were committed between 2003 and 2008.  His alleged victims were all elderly women between the ages of 56 and 79, and Tanevski resided in the name neighborhood as the victims.  Tanevski has been accused of the rape, torture, and strangulation deaths of the four women.  Police have alleged that he used telephone cable to strangle the women, after which he purportedly wrapped their mutilated bodies in plastic bags after cutting them into pieces and discarding them at several waste disposal locations on the outskirts of this western Macedonian city.  Following each of the murders, Tanevski went to each victim's home and interviewed family members for his written reports, which his editors said "were rich in details."

"He came to my house to get a statement and took (with him) a picture of my sister," said a relative of one of the victims.

No one, at first, including the investigators and prosecutors with whom he kept in close contact, suspected that Tanevski might have been the killer.

"All the victims were found naked, strangled, wrapped with phone cables," said a police spokesperson.  "The women were sexually and physically abused.  For example, the last victim, a 65-year-old female, was found with 13 deep wounds on her skull and multiple rib fractures."

Traces of Tanevski's sperm were found on the bodies of Zhivana Temelkovska, 65, the latest victim who was killed in May 2008, and that of Mitra Siljanovska, 61, who was killed in 2004.  Two people were convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2005 for Siljanovska's murder, and Tanevski—yes, you guessed it—covered their trial and wrote stories about it for his newspaper.  Due to the evidence in that case and Tanevski's arrest for Siljanovska's murder, authorities have indicated that the case will receive an appropriate judicial review to look at the likelihood that two innocent people may have been convicted for a crime that they didn't commit.

Tanevski is also being investigated for the murder of...

Continue Reading Vlado Tanevski-The Hunter Who Became the Hunted