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A chilling court case recently concluded with a former butcher being found guilty of murdering her partner, dismembering her body, and concealing the remains in their garden, leaving the victim’s fate unknown for years.
Anna Podedworna was sentenced on February 10 by Derby Crown Court in the UK. She faced charges of murder, obstructing justice, and preventing a lawful burial after the 2010 death of 30-year-old Izabela Zablocka, as detailed in a statement from Derbyshire Police.
Detective Inspector Kane Martin, who led the investigation, commented on the verdict, saying, “Izabela was murdered in her own home in August 2010 and gruesomely dismembered by Anna Podedworna, a skilled butcher. Podedworna herself admitted to monstrous behavior—words can barely capture the horror of her actions and treatment of Izabela.”
During the trial, evidence revealed that Podedworna claimed an altercation with Zablocka in August 2010 escalated when Zablocka allegedly attempted to strangle her. Podedworna said she struck Zablocka on the head with a horse figurine; however, the jury ultimately rejected her self-defense narrative.
Investigators disclosed that Podedworna used her expertise as a former turkey butcher to dismember Zablocka and then buried the remains in the garden of their shared residence in Normanton.
“After killing Izabela, she cut her into two, treating her no differently to another piece of meat at work,” Martin explained in the statement. “She then waited for night to fall, to dig a grave in the garden of their home and buried Izabela there.”
According to Martin, Podedworna “removed all trace” of her girlfriend and continued to lie about her whereabouts for years.
Then, in 2025, Zablocka’s daughter Katarzyna “Kasia,” who had been a young child when her mom disappeared, urged a Polish TV journalist to look into the disappearance. Feeling pressured by the renewed attention, Podedworna emailed police to tell them where they could find the body, according to the BBC.
She was arrested on June 5, 2025 and was ordered to stand trial in January.
“Izabela’s family have had to learn about the unimaginable horrors Anna Podedworna inflicted upon her in a very public manner,” Martin added, “so many years after she was taken away.”
Kasia spoke about the toll her mother’s disappearance took on her over the years in a powerful victim impact statement to the court, calling it a “horrific” experience.
“This sudden void left a deep wound in my psyche which has stayed with me until this day,” she said, per the BBC. “The worst part was the soul-crushing uncertainty. For years, I didn’t know why she left me.”
Detective Constable Emma Birch credited Kasia’s efforts to find out what happened to her mother with bringing the case to its resolution.
“She had not abandoned Katarzyna – instead she had been murdered,” Birch said in the statement from police. “Were it not for Katarzyna’s refusal to simply accept that her mother had left I have no doubt that Anna Podedworna would still be living her life and Izabela’s family would have continued to be left in the dark.”
Podedworna was sentenced to life. She will be required, police said, to serve a minimum of 20 years and 116 days behind bars.