13 September 2024, 11:35 | Updated: 13 September 2024, 11:38
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A former Miss Switzerland finalist is said to have been planning to leave her husband before he allegedly strangled and made her into purée in blender.
The body of Kristina Joksimovic, 38, was found in February in Binningen, near Basel in Switzerland.
Her husband, named as Thomas in local media, had an appeal for release from custody rejected on Wednesday by the Federal Court in Lausanne after confessing to killing his wife.
A source close to Kristina said that a possible motive was that she had been planning to leave him.
“She wanted to break up, but was afraid of him,” the source told 20 Minuten.
Read more: Former Miss Switzerland finalist ‘strangled to death and pureed in blender by husband’
It comes after the partner of one of Kristina’s friends told Swiss newspaper Blick that their relationship had been “in crisis for months”.
Police were allegedly called out to their home before over reports of physical violence.
Thomas showed a “lack of empathy and cold-bloodedness after killing his wife” and displayed “sadistic-sociopathic traits”, investigators found in their psychological assessment.
The couple were said to have been in a happy relationship until Thomas launched his own business in 2022.
His temper changed quickly and the relationship started to crumble, the source close to Kristina added.
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Thomas, 41, claimed he killed his wife in self-defence after she came at him with a knife before dismembering her “in a panic”.
Kristina’s body was found on the evening of February 13, with investigators reportedly concluding the ex-model had been strangled before she died.
Thomas was arrested the next day after her remains were found by a “third party”, according to reports.
The verdict reportedly states the suspect confessed to strangling his wife.
An autopsy found the body was then dismembered with a jigsaw, knife and garden shears before body parts were chopped up with a hand blender, “pureed” and dissolved in a chemical solution, local outlet Blick reported.
A medical-forensic report also “contradicts his description of self-defence”, according to Swiss outlet FM1 Today.
An ongoing investigation concluded on Wednesday there were “concrete indications of mental illness” underlying the case.
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The couple had been married since 2017 and reportedly lived in a “spacious semi-detached house” in an affluent area of Basel.
Just four weeks before she was killed, Kristina shared pictures of a “couple’s getaway” on her Instagram account.
Kristina had reportedly switched from modelling to become a catwalk coach, while she also trained businesswomen for walking confidently in their professional or private lives.
She had won the Miss Northwest Switzerland pageant in 2003 and went on to be a finalist in the 2008 Miss Switzerland competition.