The monster among us: Neighbours tell of shock after ‘lovely woman’ is found guilty of chopping up her girlfriend
The ‘lovely’ church-going neighbor who dismembered and buried her lesbian partner might never have been found if it wasn’t for the victim’s daughter, police admitted last night.
Anna Podedworna was finally brought to justice yesterday, 15 years after she murdered 30-year-old Izabela Zablocka after she refused gender reassignment surgery.
Podedworna, a skilled butcher, spent two hours cutting Ms Zablocka’s body in half and then placed the remains in black garbage bags and buried them in his garden.
She then moved on with her life, moving her mother and sister into a two-bedroom terrace in Derby just a month after the murder, before marrying a man and having two children with him.
She went to work, went to church, took her children on vacation, and chatted with neighbors who thought she was a ‘cute woman’.
One stunned former neighbor told the Daily Mail: ‘I always said good morning to him when he went out for a walk with his little dog, he looked really nice.
‘You never knew he could do something like that.’
And he might have gotten away with murder if it weren’t for the determination and courage of Mrs. Zablocka’s daughter, Kasia.
Anna Podedworna (pictured) was finally brought to justice yesterday, 15 years after she murdered 30-year-old Izabela Zablocka after she refused gender reassignment surgery.
Picture: Ms Zablocka, 30, and her daughter Kasia, who was five at the time
Ms Zablocka’s body had been buried under the porch for 15 years before it was discovered in June last year.
Her perseverance led to the grisly discovery of her mother’s remains in June last year after Derbyshire police closed their investigation into the missing young mother after just ten days.
Yesterday, Podedworna, 40, was found guilty of murder following a three-week trial at Derby Crown Court. When he appears again today, he faces life imprisonment.
Podedworna claimed that he accidentally killed Ms Zablocka during a brawl and buried her because he did not think his explanation of self-defense would be believed.
But jurors at Derby Crown Court found him guilty of murder, obstructing a lawful burial and perverting the course of justice.
Kasia, now 25, was around seven years old when her mother had sex with Podedworna, who lived in the same apartment block as her grandmother in Trzebiatow, north-west Poland.
The court heard the two women argued over Ms Zablocka’s reluctance to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Podedworna made the operation conditional on the continuation of their relationship. But Ms Zablocka had ‘lost interest’ in the procedure and the couple had no money to pay for it.
They moved to the UK in 2009, leaving nine-year-old Kasia with relatives, and found work in a poultry factory in Derbyshire; Mrs. Zablocka worked as a packer and Podedworna as a butcher.
Kasia, 25, was speaking to her mother on the phone at least three times a week by August 2010; but he was never heard from or seen again. Kasia’s grandmother reported Ms. Zablocka missing in Poland, while her cousin reported her missing to police in the United Kingdom on 24 November 2010.
Officers visited their address and spoke to Podedworna on the phone, who told them she did not know where Ms Zablocka was.
Podedworna, 40, was found guilty of murder after a three-week trial at Derby Crown Court. Picture: Podedworna being arrested by the police
Podedworna moved her mother and sister into a two-bed terrace in Derby (pictured) just a month after the murder.
Derbyshire police closed their missing persons investigation on 4 December the same year.
However, in 2024, Kasia began contacting Polish missing persons charities and participated in television and press interviews to publicize her mother’s disappearance.
A Polish journalist later turned up at the door of Podedworna’s home in Derby.
Prosecutors said it was a ‘turning point’; The next day Podedworna ‘cracked’ and emailed Derbyshire police advising them of the whereabouts of Ms Zablocka’s remains.
Ms. Zablocka was found hidden under a reinforced concrete structure. It was torn apart, cut in half at the waist, and stuffed into black plastic bags. He was found surrounded by animal bones and a carrying bag containing his blood-stained clothes.
Although time has passed, the cause of death has never been determined. In his statement in court, Podedworna, in tears, admitted that he shot Ms. Zablocka to death with a horse figurine during the fight, but said that he acted in self-defense.
Following his conviction, Derbyshire police admitted there was ‘no doubt’ that without Kasia’s insistence Podedworna ‘would still be living his life and Izabela’s family would continue to be in the dark’.
