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Topics: Crime, True crime, World News, Court
William Morgan
Even more horrifying details of a husband's brutal alleged murder and dismemberment of his wife, a former Miss Switzerland finalist, have emerged on the first day of his trial.
Mom-of-two Kristina Joksimovic and her 42-year-old husband Marc Riebens 'seemed like the perfect family' to outside observers, living in a quiet and affluent suburb of Binnington, near Basel, Switzerland.
But in February 2024, a discussion about their separation and Joksimovic's desire to get a divorce descended into deadly violence, with Riebens allegedly refusing to accept the end of their marriage and demanding full custody of their children.
Setting out their case against Riebens in court on Monday, May 4, the prosecution detailed how the husband is then alleged to have begun his murderous campaign, which would end with him chopping up his wife and turning her body into 'puree' using an industrial blender.
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In court, they claimed that Riebens pinned his wife against a wall and strangled her with a 'ribbon-like object', before methodically mutilating her body.
The Sun reports that Joksimovic's autopsy revealed that the mom had suffered serious blunt force trauma, lacerations to her face and had bruises all over her. Her hair had even been torn from her scalp.
The prosecution then detailed the horrifying way the former model's body was dismembered by her husband of seven years. Riebens is alleged to have used a jigsaw, a knife, and garden shears to chop his wife up.
But these attempts to dispose of Joksimovic's body was not just a cold calculation, the prosecutors claim, with investigators finding that her womb had been 'carefully removed', which experts told the court showed a 'deliberate mutilation or ritualised degradation of the body'.
One of a number of chilling details that emerged on the first day of Riebens' trial at Basel-Landschaft Criminal Court was that he supposedly was watching YouTube videos while he dismembered his wife's corpse.
The husband is accused of then dissolving some of her body parts in chemicals, using an industrial blender for the rest. Riebens does not deny killing his wife, but claims he acted in self defense - dismembering and blending his wife 'in a panic.'
All of this horror took place in the basement of their family home, where police later discovered 'a large number' of skin flaps, with parts of Joksimovic's muscle and bone still attached.
Tragically, this crime scene was not first uncovered by the police, but Joksimovic's own father, who had become suspicious when his daughter did not pick up her daughters from kindergarten.
However, when he went to the family home and asked where his daughter was, Riebens is alleged to have said he had no idea of her whereabouts. While his wife's remains lay just meters away, he made the kids and evening meal and tried to assuage his father-in-law's worries.
When his mother-in-law also called to ask what had happened to their daughter, Joksimovic's suspicious father decided to search for clues around the house. Then, he walked into the basement.
When he walked in, the father-in-law spotted a black garbage bag with strands of blonde hair hanging out of it. “When he opened the black bin bag, he saw her cut off head with the hair still attached,” a family friend said.
Joksimovic's father reportedly then ran out of the house screaming for help and asking passersby to call the police. He is then said to have gone back to confront Riebens.
When the husband was arrested, local media report that he showed on emotion. Later, he confessed to killing and dismembering his wife through his lawyers, but said that he had acted in self defense after his wife 'suddenly attacked him with a knife'.
However, an expert told the court that most people in these cases turn themselves in, rather than embark on a 'prompt, purposeful, and methodically executed' mission to destroy the evidence of their crime.
The expert said someone would only do this if they were attempting to 'eliminate as many traces as possible, including the body, in order to conceal what actually happened'.
While laying out there case against Riebens, prosecutors detailed how their had been previous violent incidents, including assaulting a previous partner and strangling Joksimovic in a previous altercation, with photo evidence.
The indictment laid against him, which could see him convicted of murder and desecrating the dead, alleges that Riebens had 'a selfish attitude and mindset characterised by a need for control, hurt feelings, revenge, and intense rage.'
He has remained in police custody since his arrest in February 2024.
Friends have expressed their shock at Joksimovic's killing, with former Miss Switzerland Nadine Vinzens saying: “She always made a happy impression on me. I would never have thought that her husband would do something like that.”
Another friend added: “To me, they seemed like the perfect family.”