The Kurim case was a terrible event that affected the whole Czech nation. An 8-year-old boy was abused by his closest family members, which shocked everyone. This disturbing situation only came to light by accident.
The story involves Barbora Skrlova and a chilling criminal case. As someone from the Czech Republic, I followed this story closely when it happened. Even now, thinking about what happened still gives me the creeps.
Key Points:
- Barbora Skrlova pretended to be two different people. First, she took on the identity of a little girl named Anicka. Then, she transformed into a 13-year-old boy called Adam.
- In 2011, she got out of prison. After that, she changed her name and moved to a new place.
- Barbora Skrlova was one of the people abusing her younger brother Ondrej.
The Kurim Case Story
It was the evening of May 7th, 2007. Eduard, who lived in the Czech city of Kurim, was just checking the baby monitor camera like usual. But instead of seeing his kid, he saw something straight out of a horror movie.
On the screen was a little boy laying on the bare floor of an empty room. He was completely naked with his hands and feet taped together. And get this – the kid was eating food off the floor! Eduard was totally shocked by what he saw. He wasted no time and called the police right away.
They found out the boy was eight-year-old Ondrej. He had been locked in this tiny, empty room the whole time. His hands and feet were taped up and he was left on the concrete floor with no food, water or bathroom. They gave him mostly just raw meat to eat. And he had to use a bucket as a toilet in that tiny space. The whole situation was totally inhumane.
Later that day, the police found Ondrej with help from the firefighters. This was around 9:30pm on May 7th, 2007. They had to force the door open even though the two suspects were trying to stop them.
Poor Ondrej was found face down on the floor. Vomit and poop everywhere. On top of that, he was completely naked. His hands were cuffed behind his back and taped up. His legs were bent in a crouched position and cuffed too.
When the police show up after getting a call, Klara answers the door. She says other than her daughter Anicka, she doesn’t have any other kids there. But the cops heard screaming coming from inside. When they ask Klara about it, she says she doesn’t have the key.
The police weren’t buying Klara’s story, though. Screams don’t lie. So they called in the fire department to get the door open. Klara and her sister Katerina started freaking out, screaming nothing and no one was in the room and they shouldn’t open it. After everything went down, Klara claimed she didn’t even know some kid was locked in there.
All The Children Were Moved Away To A Children’s Home
A few days had passed and it was now May 10th. Ondrej, just a kid, his older brother Jakub and sister Anicka had been moved to a home for children. Word quickly started spreading about what had happened with Ondrej.
For at least the last six months, everyone could see that Ondrej’s mom Klara, who was 30, had been hurting the poor kid. But it soon became clear it wasn’t just Ondrej. Over the next few weeks, more details would start to come to light about what that child had gone through.
On May 11th, Klara Mauerova was taken into police custody. That same evening, a 13-year-old girl named Anicka ran away from the children’s home. During the interrogations, some truly horrible details emerged about the abuse the young boy had endured.
It was revealed that Ondrej had been crammed into dog cages, only able to crouch or kneel with his elbows on the ground. He was beaten for hours at a time with belts and canes. Their torturers burned him with cigarettes, held him underwater in a basin, cut him with knives, cursed at him, and even made him hurt himself.
Anicka Is NOT A Child
The police are still questioning the defendant, trying to get more out of them. Meanwhile, they’re searching for Anicka, one of three kids who escaped from a children’s home. The head of the Endangered Children’s Fund said on TV that they think Anicka may actually be older than first reported.
Later, family friend Jakub Patocka is the first to mention the name Barbora Skrlova. According to Jakub, “Anicka” wasn’t even her real name. He says her actual name was Barbora Skrlova. Then on May 23rd, police announced they were looking at Barbora Skrlova as a person of interest in the case too.
On June 15th, a lady named Barbora Skrlova shows up at the Czech embassy in Denmark. She fesses up and admits she had been pretending to be this 13 year old girl named Anicka. But then just a few days later, she vanishes again! No one had any idea where she went or if she was even still in Denmark. One minute she’s coming clean about the fake identity, and the next it’s like she just dropped off the face of the earth.
On January 9th, police in Norway arrested Barbora Skrlova. The very next day, she was already in custody back in the Czech Republic.
About a month later, they started accusing her of abusing her brother Ondrej. But when they questioned her, Skrlova tried to turn it around! She claimed that she was actually the victim, not the bully. She told police she was being abused, that she was bleeding every day, and that she went through just as much abuse as Ondrej.
The investigation into that crazy case finally wrapped up in early April after 11 months of digging around. Then in mid-June, the trial started. The verdict came down in late October. The court in Brno found Klara guilty of a sin and sent her to prison for nine years. Her sister Katerina got an even ten years. As for Barbora Skrlova, who pretended to be that poor little girl Anicka and then that boy Adam too, she got five years.
Where Is She Now?
Barbora Skrlova got out of prison back in November 2011. She didn’t have any parole conditions – she was just free to go. After that, it seems like she wanted a fresh start because she changed her name. But she didn’t tell anyone where she was moving to, so her exact location was a mystery.
We know she’s not living in the same place anymore. No one can say for sure where Barbora is living now. But from what I’ve seen on some Czech language forums (Czech is my first language), it seems like many people think she might still be somewhere in the Czech Republic or a neighboring country. Many people are speculating that she hasn’t gone too far from her home country. So who knows, maybe she’s living a quiet life somewhere nearby even if we can’t pinpoint exactly where!