Vlado Taneski

Case record: Vlado Taneski

Background

Vlado Taneski (1952 - June 23, 2008) was a Macedonian crime reporter turned serial killer. His journalistic career spanned over twenty years.

Taneski was separated from his wife and had two children with her. He had a tense relationship with his late mother. His father committed suicide in 1990.

A collection of pornographic videos and magazines was found in his summer house.

The offence

Taneski came under suspicion for the murder of three women whose deaths he had also written about.

The suspected victims were:

• Mitra Simjanoska, 64, found dead in 2005
• Ljubica Licoska, 56, murdered in February 2007
• Zivana Temelkoska, 65, murdered in May 2008

Police described the women as poor, uneducated cleaners. All of the women knew Taneski’s mother personally.

Police said the bodies had been found naked, wrapped in telephone cables, and stuffed into nylon bags in different places in Kicevo.

The Guardian described the three bodies as discovered wrapped in plastic bags and dumped and discarded around Kicevo. It also described the women as being beaten repeatedly and strangled with a phone cable.

The Guardian further described the missing fourth woman:

• A 78-year-old woman who went missing in 2003, whose body was never found

The Guardian stated that the fourth woman had “never been found.”

Investigation

Police suspected Taneski after his articles contained information that was not released to the public.

Police said there were many things that pointed to him as a suspect and led the police to file charges against him for two of the murders. The police said they were close to charging him with a third murder.

The Guardian described police as saying that Taneski’s inside knowledge included his reporting, without attribution, of the type of phone cord the killer used, including that it had been used to strangle and tie up the bodies. It also described police as saying that he speculated about the chronology of the murders.

Police were also planning to question Taneski on the 2003 disappearance of Gorica Pavleska, described as a 78-year-old woman reported missing in 2003.

“All these women were raped, molested and murdered in the most terrible way and we have very strong evidence that Taneski was responsible for all three,” said police spokesman Ivo Kotevski speaking from the capital Skopje.

“In the end there were many things that pointed to him as a suspect and led us to file charges against him for two of the murders,” he added.

“We were close to charging him with a third murder, and hoped he would give us details of a fourth woman who disappeared in 2003 - because we believe he was involved in that case, too.”

The AP-related passage described that after the articles aroused suspicions, the police began investigating Taneski, whose DNA was then matched to semen found on the victims.

A spokesperson, Ivo Kotevski, said:

“We read his stories and it made us suspicious,” Mr. Kotevski said. “He knew too much.”

Arrest and detention

Taneski was arrested in June 2008 after his DNA was matched to semen found on the victims.

He was arrested on June 22, 2008 after the DNA match.

The AP-related passage described him as being jailed Sunday after publishing articles on the killings.

Death

On June 23, 2008, Taneski was found dead in his cell at a prison in the town of Tetovo. He was found with his head in a bucket of water.

Police said the death seemed to be a suicide.

Timeline

• 1990 — Taneski’s father committed suicide
• 2003 — Gorica Pavleska, aged 78, went missing; police suspected her as a possible victim
• 2005 — Mitra Simjanoska, aged 64, was found dead
• February 2007 — Ljubica Licoska, aged 56, was murdered
• May 2008 — Zivana Temelkoska, aged 65, was murdered
• June 22, 2008 — Taneski was arrested after DNA matched semen found on the victims
• June 23, 2008 — Taneski was found dead in his cell in Tetovo after an apparent suicide; his head was in a bucket of water

Trial

Charges were filed against Taneski for two of the murders. Police were preparing to charge him with the murder of the third.

Outcome

Taneski died in custody in Tetovo on June 23, 2008, after an apparent suicide, and the police said they may never know exactly what happened.

Aftermath

Ognen Cancarevik, a crime reporter at New Macedonia who collaborated with Taneski on articles, said he and other colleagues at the newspaper were in shock.

“He was a nice and educated guy who seemed completely normal,” Mr. Cancarevik said.

“When the police rang me to say, ‘Your reporter is the murderer,’ I could barely believe my ears.”

Cancarevik said:

• Taneski was separated from his wife and had two grown children
• He had a tense relationship with his mother

“He was so calm when he was discussing the murders. All of these women lived only meters away from his house.”

Ljupco Popovski, editor in chief of Utrinski Vesnik, said:

“I would never believe that he is capable of doing something like that,”

Ivo Kotevski said:

“The police would continue to investigate, but added that with the suspect dead, ‘we may never know exactly what happened.’”

Antoni Novotni, a professor who heads the psychiatric clinic in Skopje, discussed possible symbolism, stating:

“There is obvious symbolism in the fact that his mother, like the victims, was a cleaner,” said Antoni Novotni, a professor who heads the psychiatric clinic in Skopje.

Novotni said it was speculation that:

“Perhaps he saw it as a way of resolving his inner problems, and getting rid of the burden which came with killing these women.”

Novotni also said he was not Taneski’s patient:

“This is pure speculation - as he was never my patient - but one explanation could be that he wanted to be caught by letting slip what he did in his articles,” Novotni told the Guardian.

Other details

Mitra, Ljubica, Zivana, and the fourth woman

Police said the victims were Zivana Temelkoska, Ljubica Licoska, and Mitra Simjanoska, and that police were still searching for Gorica Pavleska who was reported missing in 2003.

The Guardian said the three women were aged between 65 and 56.

Details from Taneski’s published writing

The Guardian described a headline and account attributed to Taneski.

“On May 18, just after the gruesome murder of Zivana Temelkoska, he called and pitched the story to us,” said Goce Trpkovski, a reporter at the daily Nova Makedonija.

“He was very quietly spoken but also very persuasive. As a contributor we published his story as the main article on the crime pages the next day - under the headline 'A serial killer stalks Kicevo, too' - because the murders followed a series of killings in Ochrid, although they were nothing like this.

“To tell the truth, I didn't believe the story - almost nothing happens in Macedonia, and suddenly we have two serial killers stalking our tiny country in a matter of months.”

The AP-related passage described that in an article in the newspaper New Macedonia under the headline “Serial Killer Stalks Kicevo,” Taneski wrote that one of the victims, Ljubica Licoska, was abducted after two men approached her, told her that her son had been injured, and then lured her to their car.

Taneski also published another article, according to the AP-related passage, in which he faulted the police for implicating two men in the death of one of the victims, noting that they had been in jail at the time of the crime.

Extract from a piece by Vlado Taneski (Nova Makedonija)

The people of Kicevo live in fear after another butchered body has been found in the town. The corpse strongly resembles one discovered 20 kilometres outside Kicevo last year and there is a possibility that these monstrous murders are the work of a serial killer. Both women were tortured and murdered in the same fashion, which rules out the possibility that this could have been done by two different people. The Ochrid serial killer murdered three people [in 2007] but his victims were all street-based money exchangers and his motive was to rob them. The motive of the Kicevo monster remains unclear. Both women were friends and living in the same part of town. Police have a few suspects who they are interrogating. The latest body was found in rubbish dump. It had been tied up with a piece of phone cable with which the woman had clearly been previously strangled.