EXCLUSIVE Revealed: Shallow grave suspected to contain young mother who may have met a grisly end in Britain - and how one mysterious phone call 15 years ago may hold key to police investigation

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Hidden for 15 years in the back garden of an otherwise ordinary terraced house in Derby, the shallow grave of a young mother who once lived here is only now beginning to give up its secrets.
Izabela Zablocka was 30 and a tenant of the property with her female partner when she vanished without trace, having last spoken to her family in Poland in August, 2010.
She had moved to the two-bedroom home in the busy Normanton suburb, a mile from the city centre, the previous summer, leaving her then nine-year-old daughter with the child's grandmother as she fell into a new relationship.
When she disappeared suddenly and out of character, her family contacted police in Derbyshire who began a missing person enquiry.
But despite talking to her friends in the local Polish community and colleagues at Cranberry Foods Turkey and Chicken Factory in the nearby village of Scropton the trail went cold.
And that remained the investigation's status until last week when, acting on fresh information, Derbyshire Police began searching the back garden of her former home.
What they found there saw the old missing person case upgraded to a murder investigation with the arrest of three women and a man almost immediately.
As our exclusive picture shows, police excavated the entire back yard using a JCB mini digger and recovered human remains from a spot understood to be between the patio and a wooden fence, where a six-foot long rectangular hole is visible.
Another small patch of the garden on the opposite side is under a forensics tent. Although yet to formally confirm this, police are increasingly confident the remains are those of Ms Zablocka.
Back home in the small town of Gryfice in northwest Poland, the daughter she left behind – Katarzyna – is now in her mid-twenties.
And it is understood that she has been the driving force behind police re-opening the case into her mother's disappearance.
Speaking to a Polish TV documentary earlier this week Katarzyna described how her mother had had a stormy relationship with her female partner in the UK.
The last conversation Izabela had with daughter - when she was taken back to Poland with her grandmother - was on August 28, 2010.
Katarzyna never spoke to her mother again.
Her daughter told the documentary that she rang her mother's house phone in Derby shortly afterwards but a Polish woman she did not recognise answered.
During the short conversation, the woman claimed to have no knowledge of her mother before hanging up and disconnecting the phone.
Katarzyna told Polsat TV: 'My mother was lesbian and it was obvious to us. It was not a secret, whether in the family or in our environment.
'There was a situation where they had a fight and my mother had to sleep on a park bench.
'She apparently threw her out of the house.
'I called her English number, a woman speaking Polish answered. I didn't recognise this woman's voice.
'She was not my mother's partner. I asked if I could talk to my mother, because it was her number after all.
'The woman said she didn't know who she was talking about, that she didn't know any Izabela. And she hung up. I tried calling again but the number was already disconnected.'
Katarzyna also told the programme that her mother's partner had been reportedly seeing a man in secret at the same time.
Ms Zablocka's former partner was tracked down by the programme makers recently but she denied this affair claim - or knowing anything about the disappearance.
She said: 'It wasn't like that at all. I didn't have anyone. I broke up with her about four months before she went missing.
'I think her birthday was on September 5th, and I didn't even see her from that moment on. She moved out.'
Last week Derbyshire Police arrested four people in total, two women aged 39, another aged 43 and a 41-year-old man before releasing them on bail pending further enquiries.
However, one of the 39-year-old women was re-arrested on suspicion of murder on Monday and is still being questioned by detectives.
The house police are continuing to search on Princes Street is currently rented by a family of five from Slovakia, who have been living there since 2020 and have no connection to the missing mother or any previous tenant.
Their three children have been playing in the garden recently unaware of what was lying under their feet, neighbours say. The family have been temporarily re-homed.
Many families living on the road and surrounding streets come from Eastern Europe, most only residing there for a few years before moving on.
Simon Seymour, 63, has been living on Princes Street for the last 27-years and is one of the few long-term residents who remembered Ms Zablocka.
He said: 'She was nice but I didn't really speak to her much, she kept to herself most of the time. We'd exchange glances, say the odd 'hello' and wave and that was it.
'She had a girlfriend, I remember that, and they lived together in the house. I can't recall if anyone else lived there.
'They both left suddenly 15 years ago. They had a black cat and after they'd gone I'd see him in their back garden, half-starved and neglected.
'I left some cat food out for him in my back garden and sure enough he came round and ate it and together with my partner we looked after him for a few months. We called him TomTom.
'He was a lovely cat but he had had the feline leukaemia virus and so he had to be put to sleep in the end.
'We'd always assumed Izabela had left abruptly with her girlfriend…but it now looks as though she may have actually been murdered and buried in a shallow grave in that garden where we saw her cat.
'It's chilling to think if that's what happened and we've not known anything about it for 15 years despite living so close.'
Another woman who asked not to be named also remembered Ms Zablocka and said: 'I recognise her face.
'At one point, I think she lived with at least two women – one being her partner - and a man. All Polish.
'From time to time I'd walk past the house and see them sitting by the front door drinking and chatting.
'But I also recall hearing furious arguments coming from that house. I could sometimes hear shouting from my bathroom window and wouldn't dare go out.
'I couldn't tell who was shouting or what was being said as it was all in Polish.
'My memory is somewhat hazy as it was about 15 years or so ago but I remember a woman and a man working in the garden, laying the grass and keeping it nice and tidy. They were the only tenants who did.
'The police came round on Tuesday last week and started digging. They must have had good information because they found the human remains very quickly.
'It's shocking that this has happened, you would t expect it here.'
Another man who remembered Ms Zablocka said he used to see her in a local grocery shop adding: 'She seemed like a lovely lady.'
A 19-year-old girl who lives next door to the garden where the body was found said: 'I live here with my mum and sister and like Izabela we are also Polish but we've only lived here since 2015 and so didn't know her.
'The people who live in the house now are a couple from Slovakia and their three children.
'We could see two forensic tents in the neighbour's garden. One right by our fence and another on the opposite side. The one on our side has since been removed.
'It's a little worrying to know that her remains have lain just on the other side of the fence throughout the whole time we've been living here. The family who live there now have young children who play sometimes in the garden. It's awful.'
Grace Young, a 69-year-old semi-retired science teacher who lives nearby said she too was scared
She said: 'We're living in fear because there is a lot we don't know. We don't know who has been arrested and where they are.
'It's left me gobsmacked and I've now locked my gates because I'm concerned as to who is around. It's a nightmare.
'What that poor woman went through doesn't bear thinking about. I only hope that no other bodies are under that garden.'
A police van remains parked outside the front of the house with officers coming and going intermittently.
Detective Inspector Kane Martin, from Derbsyhire Police, who is leading the investigation said: 'Izabela's family are at the forefront of our minds following this discovery and, whilst formal identification has not yet taken place, it is our belief that these remains do belong to Izabela.
'As such, we have spoken with Izabela's family in Poland, and they are aware. Our thoughts are with them at this extremely difficult time.
'Identification of the remains is likely to be a lengthy process, but we will issue updates when we are able.
'I know that reports of these findings will send shockwaves through the local community, and I understand the concern of residents.
'Officers will remain in Princes Street in the coming days, and anyone with concerns is encouraged to speak with them.
'A dedicated team of detectives are continuing to piece together information about the days prior to Izabela's death.
'Izabela had friends in Derby, socialised in Derby, and worked in Derby.
'We know that someone out there will have information about Izabela that may help us understand what happened to her, and urge anyone who saw, spoke to, or heard anything about Izabela in July or August 2010 to come forward.
'You may hold the key piece of information that we need to understand the full circumstances of Izabela's disappearance, and to give her family answers on what happened to their loved one.
'Anyone who does wish to make contact, can do so completely anonymously through the charity Crimestoppers who are offering a £20,000 reward for any information which leads to the conviction of someone in the case of Izabela.'