Murdered Natalia’s sister says: When I wake I hope it’s all been a bad dream
THE SISTER of Natalia Karaczyn, who was killed by her husband at their home in Sligo, has said that every morning she wakes up and hopes it was all a bad dream.
Rafal Karaczyn, who strangled his wife in their family home at Crozon Park after she had sought to leave him and build her own life, was found guilty of murder by a jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin last Wednesday.
Karaczyn, 35, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to murder for the unlawful killing of his wife Natalia on April 29, 2018.
It is his second time to stand trial accused of the murder, with his first trial being halted in March last year for Covid-related issues when it was close to conclusion.
This time the jury of seven women and four men took two days to arrive at their guilty verdict which was not unanimous but was agreed by 10 of the 11 jurors.
The jury was reduced from 12 to 11 members on Wednesday last when the judge acceded to a request from the foreperson of the jury to be excused. Following the verdict Natalia’s sister, Magdalena McMorrow, described her as a “loving mum, sister and daughter who had plans and dreams that will never come true”.
“Soon the trial will be over and everyone will forget and move on but not us. We will never forget or move on,” she added.
Ms McMorrow said she remembers the pain and anxiety she felt when her sister went missing and then the shock of receiving the “terrible news” that she was dead.
She said her sister’s death affected every member of her family and caused her father’s death as he could not cope with the “hate and pain”.
Ms McMorrow shared a room with her sister for 18 years and said: “We always had each other’s back. I definitely didn’t tell her enough how much I loved her and if I could again I would tell her every day.”
She said the youngest of Natalia’s three children doesn’t know who his mother was.
She added: “It breaks my heart when they are happy because I want my sister to be there to see it, and it breaks my heart when they are sad because I want Natalia to be there to comfort them.
“Every morning I wake up and hope it was all a bad dream. I ask why and will never get the answer.”
Brendan Grehan, counsel for the accused, said his client wished to say sorry to Natalia’s family, and in particular to Ms McMorrow.
Following the statement by Ms McMorrow, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon sentenced Karaczyn to the mandatory term of life imprisonment.
Outside court Sligo Superintendent Mandy Gaynor said it had been a “long, sad journey” for Natalia’s family. She said that they had put their trust in An Garda Síochána to investigate the “callous act” and the garda investigation had resulted in a murder verdict.
She thanked the community in Sligo, in particular the members of the eastern European community, who had helped with the investigation.
The court had heard that Natalia wanted to split from her husband and wanted him out of their home.
When she arrived home in the early hours of April 29, 2018, a Sunday morning, her husband came into her bedroom and demanded to know where she had been.
He said that she pushed him out of the room and when he returned and again demanded to know where she had been she slapped him.
He told gardaí: “I really don’t know what happened. I started to strangle her and after a while she started to slide down.”
Karaczyn claimed in his defence that Natalia had provoked him to such an extent that he lost all self control and argued that he should therefore be found guilty of manslaughter and not murder.
Meanwhile, following the conclusion of the trial it was revealed that
Karaczyn secretly filmed his wife in the shower and bath after she told him she no longer wanted him in her life. Four videos retrieved from a laptop and mobile phone belonging to Karaczyn showed him placing a camera in the bathroom filming the bath and shower area minutes before Natalia entered the room. When she was finished showering or bathing, Karaczyn could be seen retrieving the device.
The first video was dated November 25, 2017, some months after their marriage had begun to come apart and when they were sleeping in separate rooms.
The other videos were date stamped in the following December and March. Edited versions of the videos were shown in court in the absence of the jury as the prosecution wanted to introduce them as evidence of Karaczyn’s attitude towards his wife. Ms Justice Eileen Creedon refused to allow them to be shown to the jury as she said they were not relevant or necessary to prove whether Karaczyn intended to kill or cause serious injury to his wife when he strangled her.
The garda investigation revealed that the relationship between Karaczyn and his wife had been strained for at least one year.
A series of text exchanges between them showed Natalia repeatedly telling him that she wanted nothing to do with him and demanding that he leave their home. Karaczyn repeatedly expressed his love for his wife and desire to fix their marriage.
The messages also showed that Natalia was frustrated that her husband kept demanding to know where she had been and with whom.
In one exchange she told Karaczyn that he made her sick, that he was an “imbecile” and had never achieved anything on his own.
She suggested that he check himself into a psychiatric ward and told him: “Stop feeling sorry for yourself because it’s sad.”
In another text she said: “I don’t give a s**t. You are a grown man, stop texting me.”
At one point she told him that he can stay “if you leave me alone and I have my own life”.
Det Sgt Oliver McHale said that on April 14, two weeks before her death, she told Karaczyn: “Get out of my life for once and for all.” When he said he would leave their home the following June she said: “Not June, now.” On April 27, two days before Karaczyn strangled her to death, she told him never to ask again where she was going or what she was doing and with whom. “You have no right,” she said.
In a later text she demanded that he return her car and said: “You can no longer set foot in this house.”
The trial heard Ms McMorrow reported Natalia missing after speaking to Karaczyn and went looking around Sligo in an attempt to trace her movements.
Staff from a nearby pub allowed her to look at CCTV footage which showed Natalia some 50m from her home at about 6am. She was with a man she had spent the night with having met him at another pub, who left her to walk the last 50m home alone.
Gardaí harvested CCTV from a neighbour’s house which showed Natalia entering her home.
Their suspicions had already been aroused by how nervous Karaczyn appeared to be and the fact that gardaí found Natalia’s handbag with her purse inside, containing her ID and bank card.
They decided to arrest Karaczyn but he maintained that Natalia had not come home and he did not know where she was. He was released on Monday morning at about 5am and went to his friend Piotr Krawacki’s house. When Magdalena arrived, Karaczyn broke down and told them that Natalia was dead.
He said he found her dead body in her room on Sunday morning and, panicking, decided to put her in the boot of the car and dump her in the woods.
He told Ms McMorrow, and would later tell gardaí, that a Traveller came to his house some weeks previously and put a gun to his head and told him Natalia had “messed with the wrong woman”.
He said the same man had approached him the day before Natalia’s death and threatened to kill his children if he did not leave a window open so they could get inside the house. Karaczyn claimed he woke up that Sunday morning to find his wife’s dead body in her room.
In a series of interviews, gardaí repeatedly asked Karaczyn to tell the truth but he maintained the lie until, following his seventh interview, he spoke privately to Ms McMorrow in an interview room in Ballymote Garda station.
Having come clean to his sister-inlaw, he told gardaí that he had killed her after they had a row over where she had been all night.