Marta Ligman | Truth About My Murder | FilmRise True Crime | Forensic Files

[intense music] - When a murder's committed, it's always a race against time to find the truth,
to separate fact from fiction, to catch the killer, and to make sure that justice is served.
But what happens when the truth vanishes with the victim? I'm Dr. Richard Shepherd,
and I've spent my entire career as a forensic pathologist performing nearly 23,000 autopsies.
I've learned that the dead don't hide the truth and they never lie. Through me, you'll be hearing directly from the victim.
With the aid of a state-of-the-art laboratory using groundbreaking technology, I'll be investigating a series of intriguing crimes
where from the victim's bodies are revealed to you the truth behind these murders.
[camera clicking] [mysterious music] Little Venice in London is famous for the houseboats
that make their way along the Grand Union Canal. But in May, 2015, this picture-postcard location
became a crime scene when a member of the public made a shocking discovery. [circle beeping]
- In the Little Venice area of west London near to Paddington Railway Station, it's an area where quite a lot of people live on barges
as their place of residence. And two people were in a canal boat and heard a noise against the side of their boat,
which caused them to look outside, and they saw a suitcase in the canal. [foreboding tune]
- The two friends on that house boat looked down into the water and saw distinctive red hair flowing out of it.
[buttons beeping] - They became very concerned and decided to call the police. - But police obviously need
to essentially find out what's happened. So, being able to recover the suitcase from the canal,
which is, in itself, potentially quite challenging task because it's in the water,
so police have got to make a decision as to whether they enter the water or not.
If they're able to actually reach and remove the item without entering the water,
that is obviously safer. So, they've gotta consider that. Then also, the actual weight of the suitcase.
Because at that point, they don't know what's in the suitcase, and it's in a body of water,
so it may well be full of water, which will add to the weight. - [Richard] Having retrieved the suitcase,
police and forensic teams were shocked at what it contained. [camera clicks] - What was found in the suitcase was a body
that had been placed essentially in the fetal position. The body was wrapped in bin bags,
and also, a curtain was placed in the suitcase. [camera clicks] - When a body's found in a suitcase in a canal,
that's a homicide. That's a suspicious death. - [Richard] The police immediately launched
a murder investigation. - The first thing that they will need to do is identify who that person is in the suitcase
because it'd be very difficult for the police to find out who killed them without knowing who they are.
[zipper zipping] - So, the police looked to the body for answers. The body that was found in the canal
was folded inside a suitcase. It was in the fetal position and wrapped in curtains and bin bags.
There was no ID, no purse, no other obvious identification, but it's still possible for this body
to reveal a lot of information, even if the body is reduced to simply a skeleton.
If you know how to read bones, you can get a lot of information from that. The age of death, the height,
and from the shape of the pelvis, the sex of the individual. Some decomposition had set in, but the organs,
tissues, and skin were still largely intact, thanks to the cooler water temperature of the canal,
which slowed down the rate of decomposition. So, a body like this, where there is still soft tissue, has many more secrets
it can reveal to a forensic pathologist. In the mortuary, the body can be measured and weighed
and the teeth can help determine the age too, since they erupt throughout life. For instance, the wisdom teeth appear in your 20s.
In this case, the body had its wisdom teeth. And the shape of the pelvic bone indicated it was female.
From all this, it could be determined with some certainty that she was a white woman,
approximately five foot two, weighing eight stone, and it was clear that she was young,
in her early 20s. But there was no missing persons report for anyone like that. So, who was she?
[mysterious music] With, little to go on, even forensic evidence proved limited.
- Ultimately, when somebody's body is in water, it's likely to remove things like DNA,
opportunities to recover evidence. For me, the most important thing is to make an appeal via the media, via all forms of media,
asking for witnesses to come forward, asking for people to report in anybody that they're concerned about,
to try and work through opportunities to identify who the person is. Because once that's established,
it opens up a vast array of other opportunities to identify if there are any other scenes
that need to be cordoned and searched and examined, because, for example, where she was actually placed into the water,
if it was different to where the suitcase was found. [soft somber music] - [Richard] Then detectives got a breakthrough.
A man called Tomasz Kocik contacted police to report his girlfriend missing. Kocik later identified the body as that of Marta Ligman.
Journalist Henry Vaughan remembers the case well. - I first heard about the case of Marta Ligman
when her body was discovered in a suitcase in the Grand Union Canal. I was working as a court reporter at the time.
It's a very unusual set of circumstances, so that is something that sticks in the mind.
- Marta Ligman came to the UK in 2012 and she worked in a delicatessen in Halston in northwest London.
Very highly thought of by her boss, described as a very pleasant girl with aspirations to get married,
to have a family to settle in the UK, the very, very pleasant demeanor, very helpful and outgoing.
- She'd come over from Poland to the United Kingdom to live and work and make a life for herself.
A very brave thing for her to have done, actually. - She was very popular, had lots of friends,
and well liked by everyone who knew her. - [Richard] In London, Marta moved in with her Polish boyfriend, Tomasz Kocik,
who she'd first met back in Poland. - Marta met Kocik on a internet chat room. [keyboard keys tapping]
- Both Polish nationals, so they formed a friendship, formed a relationship. - Tomasz Kocik was quite a bit older than Marta,
around 38 at the time. He was also from Poland and lived in London working as a forklift truck driver.
He'd also spent some time in Ireland before moving to the UK. - That relationship then developed into what seemingly
was a very, very affectionate, loving relationship. To the extent that Marta took the decision
to move from her home in Poland to London, a big step for her to set up home really with Tomasz Kocik.
- She probably went into that relationship feeling so happy, so excited, and she may even have fallen for him
before they physically met. She may have fallen for him whilst they're still, you know, maybe talking online.
- At the start, they seemed to have a very good relationship and she was very happy.
Their neighbors said they seemed like a perfect couple and also that Kocik seemed quite protective of Marta.
- Kocik was around 15 years older than Marta. He was a builder by trade and came into this country purely for work purposes.
He was a very caring person towards Marta. He was always concerned about her wellbeing
and he wanted to look after her, so they had a very happy and settled relationship.
Marta wanted to get married, she wanted to have children, and she thought when she met Kocik
that that was his dream as well. "This is what I want, too. I want a wife, I want a family, I want children.
I'm very traditional." So, that would've played into everything that she wanted.
- To people from the outside, seemingly very happy. - [Richard] So, how did this young woman's life
end so tragically? - Things can change literally overnight. [dark tune] [dark tune]
[mysterious music] - In 2015, police launched a murder investigation after the body of 23-year-old Polish delicatessen worker,
Marta Ligman, was found folded into a suitcase and dumped in a London canal. [slow dark music]
- When her body was found in a suitcase in the Grand Union Canal, it's a very unusual set of circumstances,
so it was an immediately a high-profile case. - It's important to recognize that the location
where Marta's body was found in the canal is not necessarily the same as the deposition site,
i.e., where the suitcase entered the canal. And also, there may be other locations
where events have taken place that would inform the investigation about the events that led to Marta's death.
- There were witnesses who had seen the suitcase in the canal and dismissed it without causing any suspicion
in their minds about the suitcase. But it had traveled a significant distance to the point of Little Venice,
where Marta's body was discovered. - However, what may well be preserved, because of the fact that Marta is enclosed
within the suitcase, is evidence of injuries or evidence that would be later inform
the investigation as to how she died. [mysterious music] - The post-mortem showed she'd been in the canal
for between seven and 10 days. We can estimate this because the water in the canal
where Marta's body was found would've been colder than the air temperature, and therefore slowed down the decomposition of her body,
making it easier to determine the exact time of death. We know that she was folded up very tightly
in a small space with her knees up to her chest. This position would've limited movement of the rib cage
and stopped air being drawn into her lungs. It would've been almost impossible to get her folded
into that tight space unless she was immobile. But what we don't know is whether she was dead
when she was put into the suitcase or just unconscious. And the terrible truth is
that Marta might still have been alive when she was thrown into the canal. [slow intense music]
- The most distressing detail that the pathologist could not rule out that Marta was not alive or dead
when she was placed into the suitcase. - [Richard] In their hunt for the killer,
police needed to eliminate the most obvious suspect from their inquiries. The man who'd first reported her missing,
her boyfriend, Tomasz Kocik. - We know that the most likely person to kill any woman
is their partner or ex-partner. So, intimate partner homicide, that's where a man kills his partner, or ex-partner,
is actually the biggest category of homicide for women. So, as soon as murder is identified,
Kocik is at the top of the list straight away. [foreboding tune] - Kocik was 15 years older than Marta Ligman,
and I think it's quite important just to consider that when they met online, Marta was a teenager.
- That is a bit of a red flag because statistically, somebody much older than a woman especially
is going to be targeting them because they are more malleable, they are more vulnerable, they're less experienced in life.
- So, I think in terms of power imbalance and the dynamic within the relationship,
he was likely to be more sort of influential in the way that things were within the relationship,
which, again, could have affected the way that they live their lives together and subsequent events.
- There are extra risks, I think, to meeting somebody online. It's very easy to present yourself as something
other than you actually are online, and it's very, very difficult to question any of that.
And if you do those first few meetings online, by the time you are face-to-face with that person,
you think you already know a lot about them, and so your instincts in that first face-to-face meeting
will be very much dampened. [slow dramatic music] - Marta had lived in the UK for about three years,
and friends have noticed that Marta's behavior had started to change, so she'd become quieter, more reserved.
And some concerns generally were being noted by people that knew her or they felt that something was not quite right
in the relationship. - The changes in her started to happen quite quickly. She started to withdraw, she started to lose weight,
she started being less happy, seeing less of her friends, and and that concerned them.
- Kocik became very controlling, and her friends said she wasn't the sort of happy-go-lucky person she used to be.
- [Richard] Within three years, Kocik had also become obsessively jealous about Marta.
- As time developed during their relationship, things began to take a turn for the worse.
His behavior became more controlling, more coercive, and even obsessive about Marta's movements and her whereabouts.
- And he was very intense about it. Every single thing she did, he was there. He was following her, he was tracking her,
he was isolating her. - And asking a lot of very searching questions and generally exhibiting an area of suspicion
about the way that Marta was behaving without any grounds that are known of, but just a very controlling kind of approach
taken by Kocik at that time. - He would turn up at her work. Every day, he'd pick her up from her work
'cause he didn't trust her. There's even one occasion where he demanded that the boss
of the deli she worked in show in the CCTV to prove that she'd been working there.
- And that was quite concerning to her boss. [foreboding tune] - The first control that always comes in
is what we call jealousy code. So, he would've been saying things like, "Don't like it when you talk to other men.
Makes me feel really, really jealous. Don't do it." And she probably thought, "Oh, fair enough.
Well, I won't do that. I'm not gonna wind him up." But there would've come a point
where she did something to break that rule, not on purpose, and he would've punished her for it,
and that punishment was set the tone for everything that happens going forward. [dark mysterious music]
- One of her friends recalled an occasion where Marta wore some very thick rimmed spectacles,
and what the friend thought was to try to hide the fact that she had some facial bruising.
- This made everyone very concerned about Marta's wellbeing. - The behavior progressed
to essentially monitoring Marta's behavior, moving more towards what can generally be described
as a controlling or coercive type relationship. - People who are controlling and who use coercive control
are actually trying to trap you into a relationship with them. So, that means that you can't get out of this relationship.
"You've committed to me. You can never leave" - To build the case against Kocik being the killer,
police needed to know if Marta's body revealed signs of a controlling and abusive relationship.
So, what could Marta's body tell us about the final tragic hours of her life? When Marta's body was removed from the suitcase,
it was evident she'd suffered a severe beating. She had numerous injuries to her face
and her body that must have been inflicted in the hours before she was thrown into the canal.
But she also had other injuries that were older. Bruises can be aged because they change color over time,
going from purple and blue to yellow and green, and finally to brown. Marta's body was covered in old and fresh bruises,
but it's the fractures that are most revealing. A recent fracture looks like this.
And here, you can see the clear separation in the bones. But these broken ends will knit back together
over a period of weeks and months. And Marta also had several healed fractures. So, what her body revealed was that she had been subjected
to a prolonged and savage attack immediately before her death. But it also showed that this was part
of a long history of physical abuse. - Older injuries would be consistent with what the friends had described
in terms of there being a deterioration in the relationship and more violence being used towards Marta.
[intense music] - Kocik used to play loud music in the flats, which is believed to have covered up him beating her.
[intense music continues] - So, I think she did something trivial or something that he made up
and he probably really, really hurt her, but that's a warning for the future. "That's your punishment."
It's what we call the three Cs, so it's control, challenge, consequence. So, the control is in place,
rules of the relationship. "You will not make me jealous." There's some kind of challenge to that.
Maybe she's caught speaking to somebody. What are the consequences? The third C, violence.
Now, the consequences reinstate the control. She thinks, "I'm never gonna do that again.
I am never gonna speak to another man" Or, "I'm just never gonna do anything ever
to upset this man 'cause I'm now scared of him." She was literally trapped like a hostage
in this relationship with him. - [Richard] There was still no hard evidence linking Kocik
to the assaults or the murder. But Marta's phone messages were raising further suspicions
among friends and colleagues. [mysterious music] - The boss at the delicatessen received a message
basically to say that Marta was not gonna attend work because her mum was sick in Poland and needed to leave,
which was described as being out of character for Marta, that Marta would not have sent a message that way.
She would've gone into the shop and explained. Also, messages were sent to Marta's friends
to explain that she'd left Kocik. So, there was quite an amount of communication
from Marta's Facebook account and from her device. - On Facebook Messenger, sending one of her friends
about 50 messages they exchanged between them. The friends initially believed she was talking to Marta,
but she became suspicious when the messages began to start suggesting a threesome.
- The level of conduct and the content of the communication caused some alarm to Marta's friend
as it also included activity about engaging in sexual conduct together. Marta's friend clearly thought this was uncharacteristic
of Marta, and it raised alarm bells in her head. She went straight to her home address
to see if she was okay, but nobody was at home. [dark tune] [dark tune] [somber music]
- In London in May, 2015, the body of 23-year-old Marta Ligman was found folded up in a suitcase
floating in London's Grand Canal. The post-mortem revealed bruises and fractures,
proving that she'd been subjected to a long history of physical abuse. The prime suspect was her boyfriend, Tomasz Kocik.
Messages sent from Marta's phone and computer before her body was found suggested she had left her boyfriend and returned to Poland,
but these didn't seem in character. Friends and family feared she was missing. - It was quite common for Marta to speak to her mum
on a very regular basis, if not daily. So, obviously, Marta wasn't doing that. - Her lack of contact with friends and family, again,
against her demeanor, uncharacteristic of Marta not to speak to her mother every day.
- Then Marta's mum made contact with Tomasz Kocik to establish what had happened,
and he explained that Marta had left him, which also fitted with messages that were being sent
purporting to be from Marta. - [Richard] But once Marta's body was found, it became clear to police
that she could not have sent those messages. She was already dead in the canal. The only person with access to Marta's devices
to send messages was Kocik. - Kocik made contact using Marta's Facebook account.
He messaged one of her friends. The messaging was uncharacteristic of Marta. It alerted her friend immediately
that potentially, there could be a problem. - So, there was a clear attempt by Kocik
to mislead a number of people that knew Marta and were clearly gonna ask questions about where she was.
- He was just trying to make it all go away, stop anyone reporting her missing, and maybe give himself some time to think.
In creating this kind of web of lies, trying to convince everybody maybe that Marta's still alive
so that he stops people coming to look for her, 'cause he knows his name's gonna be at the top
of the list if she is found and identified. [foreboding music] - Kocik didn't report Marta missing.
And despite her mother phoning him and asking him to look for her and ask what he was doing to try and trace her,
he didn't report her missing until her body was found, which was around 10 days later.
[slow foreboding music] - This case attracted heavy media attention. And as a result of that, Kocik was alerted to the fact
that Marta's body has been found, and that was the point that he contacted the police
to report her as missing. In fact, members of her family had tried to ask him to report her as missing
previous to the date of her body being discovered. Kocik simply refused to do so.
- The fact that he hadn't reported a missing until Marta's body was found in the canal
clearly caused suspicion and ultimately led to the arrest of Kocik as a suspect for Marta's murder.
[foreboding tune] - [Richard] But under police questioning, Kocik denied murdering Marta.
- He did not accept that he killed Marta and denied his involvement in the murder of Marta.
- The explanation that Kocik gave was that he had come home from work and found Marta dead.
He thought that Marta had had a heart attack because he and Marta had been taking amphetamines
in the preceding days. - Kocik was fearful that he would be in trouble with the police for providing her with those drugs.
His version of events was that he panicked. - They'd been involved in rough sex activity,
as he described it, and he felt that those things combined would cause him to be blamed effectively for her death.
- But did Marta's body support Kocik's version of events? Kocik claimed that Marta had died
from an amphetamine overdose, following days of drug-fueled bondage sessions. And although internal swabs were taken,
there was no evidence of recent sexual activity. Amphetamines can be detected in the bloodstream
for, on average, 48 hours after being consumed, and on human hair, as long as 90 days afterwards.
Some amphetamine users take the drug through what is called skin popping. These are subcutaneous injections that go into the tissue
rather than the blood vessels. And what we would see then is lots of ulcerated areas on the legs and forearms,
but there was no evidence of this on Marta's body. If she was injecting, there would be track marks,
and there was no evidence of that either. - He said that he came home and found Marta dead on the sofa, and she had problems
and she was taking drugs and she'd obviously overdosed. And the most classic way to defend yourself
against killing somebody you're supposed to love is to denigrate them in some way
and make them responsible and make you the innocent victim of their awful behavior.
And that's what he did. [somber music] - [Richard] Kocik did, however, admit disposing of Marta's body.
- Eventually, as the evidence unfolded and was presented to him and his legal team,
he changed his version of events. He admitted that he did conceal her body in the suitcase.
- He confessed to the police that what he then did was place Marta into the suitcase.
He walked down the distance of about half a mile and placed a suitcase in the Grand Union Canal
near to Scrubs Lane. - The suitcase then traveled in the direction of Little Venice
down the canal for a significant period of time. - Scrubs Lane is about two and a half,
maybe three miles, from the Little Venice site where Marta's body was ultimately found.
As a result of Kocik's account, one of the things that the police will do is check
and try and corroborate an account that's given. [camera whirs] That could include CCTV.
[audio distorts] The CCTV revealed that Kocik had walked from the home address to the Grand Union Canal,
a distance of about half a mile. [foreboding music] - He was seen wheeling the suitcase
on his way to the canal along a number of streets past commuters towards the canal,
carrying this heavy suitcase, which was so heavy on CCTV. You can see that the wheels were buckling.
[water splashes] He'd also taken a stick with him in attempt to submerge the suitcase.
- And then shortly after that, he was seen again walking back towards his home address,
this time without the suitcase. From the waist down, it was noticed on the CCTV he appeared to be wet,
which would be consistent with the fact that he had been in the canal, seeking to dispose of the suitcase
in the way that he described. - This man didn't have many resources. He didn't appear to have a vehicle.
I think if he had a vehicle, he might not have chosen the canal. Throwing a body into a canal is a high-risk strategy
because bodies tend to be found when they're in bodies of water that are quite small.
- [Richard] While CCTV footage confirmed Kocik's story that he disposed of the body,
there was more to come. [mysterious music] - [Steve] You know, with that extra understanding
of what the events were and confirmed now by the CCTV, that enabled the police to search areas
where they knew that Kocik had traveled. And that led to the recovery of identity documents belonging to Marta.
- Of great significance was that en-route to and from the Canal, Marta's identification card was found damaged and burnt.
Again, evidence of Kocik trying to conceal her identification from the police. - And that confirmed and corroborated
and supported the understanding of what had taken place in Marta's death. [foreboding tune]
- [Richard] With evidence that Kocik had tried to conceal Marta's identity, police charged him with murder.
[intense music] - I've prosecuted a number of homicide cases over the years, but this case particularly stands out in my time
on the homicide unit. - The court case was a particularly horrifying one. The prosecutor warned the jury
that they were gonna hear some horrendous details and particularly, the detail that she still may be alive
when she went into the water. [dark tune] [dark tune] [boat whirring] [creepy music]
- In May, 2015, Tomasz Kocik was charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Marta Ligman.
Her body had been found in the Grand Union Canal earlier in the year after a boat owner spotted human hair
coming out of a suitcase floating in the water. [zipper zipping] The post-mortem revealed a history of domestic violence,
but whilst her boyfriend admitted disposing of her body, he denied murder. He claimed she had died of a drug overdose.
Pathology proved that was a lie. [slow piano music] Five months after his arrest,
Kocik was brought before the Old Bailey in London. Representing the case for the Crown Prosecution Service
was Senior Prosecutor Devi Kharran. - I had been working on this case for a long time
to prepare the case for present it at trial. A homicide prosecution requires a lot of preparation.
We have to find as much evidence as possible to prove every element of the offense of murder
beyond reasonable doubt, to prove that Kocik was the killer of Marta. It was a very intense atmosphere in the courtroom.
There was a lot of press and media attention surrounding this case. - I attended court when he faced trial.
It was one I covered from start to finish. The case of Marta was a very harrowing case,
just the details of the injury she suffered. The prosecutor warned the jury that they were gonna hear some horrendous details.
- It was very distressing for friends and family to have to come to court and listen
to the distressing details that were presented about Marta's life. [somber music]
- [Richard] The prosecution outlined the case against Kocik. - We relied on the strength of the evidence
to present a clear and coherent case to the jury. The evidence consisted of various strands,
including CCTV evidence, to prove his movements at the time of her killing, evidence of her identity card
that was found burnt and damaged, and the pathological evidence that gave the police the indication
as to how Marta's injuries were sustained. He clearly ruled out natural causes as a result of her death.
- [Richard] The court also heard how the obsessive and violent Kocik behaved towards Marta.
- We used the evidence of her friends and family who provided strong evidence of a change of demeanor in Marta.
Her behavior had changed. She became withdrawn, sad. She had visible facial injuries,
which caused her friends and her manager significant concern about Kocik' controlling
and coercive behavior. A man like Kocik is gonna want somebody like Marta to fall for him,
so he's gonna present himself, you know, as the perfect boyfriend. "You've met the one."
And he would use all his manipulative skills in doing that. Trouble with people like Kocik is,
they can do that for a while, they can't keep it up, so they have to get that commitment
from somebody like Marta very, very quickly because they know it's all gonna fall apart.
They know that their true self is gonna come out very, very quickly. Kocik is such an extreme example of a fixated,
obsessed, and very insecure man. He was entitled. "I own you. You're my property.
Don't you dare try and leave me because you will pay." - [Richard] Kocik himself decided not to take the stand,
but his legal team presented his version of events. - Kocik claims he returned home from work
to find Marta already dead. He said that he believed Marta died of a heart attack
and thought he would get blamed. - Anybody's who's in court is going to try and defend themselves.
They don't want to go to prison. And this has got a life sentence on the end of it.
He had to have a story for Marta being dead, so he picks another implausible story
that Marta was a drug addict and she had been taking drugs. Denigrating the victim and making them the bad person
and you the victim, that is incredibly common. - [Richard] The pathology had conclusively proved
drugs played no part in Marta's death. Kocik's case was falling apart. - So, his whole defense at court that he just found her dead
and, for some reason, decided to put her into a suitcase instead of in the paramedics,
I mean, it is all absolutely ridiculous. And this was not a sophisticated defense.
He's in a position now where he's proven to be a liar. - Kocik, while in court, he didn't show any remorse at all.
He was very cocky. And the sort of the lies he told were very distressing for Marta's family, claiming that, you know,
this had happened during rough sex and, you know, that she'd been taking drugs with him.
- And obviously distressing for her friends and family to see Kocik in the dock.
In every homicide case that we prosecute, we have the opportunity of meeting the victim's families.
Marta's mother did provide a victim impact statement, which was very, very sad. - She was very tearful.
She told how she was begging this man to help look for her when, all along, he was the one who killed her.
- [Richard] The text Kocik sent to Marta's friends were also read out in court. - Kocik sent messages to Marta's friends
to suggest that she was still alive. He wanted to make it look like she'd left him.
And when her mother was begging him to look for her, but he pretended that she'd just run away
and didn't wanna get in touch with him. - Initially, the evidence from the telephones
went against the prosecution case because the evidence showed that Marta's telephone was used
after the prosecution say her body was placed in the canal. However, at trial, that evidence
assisted the case for the prosecution because it proved that, in fact, her phone was being used
by Kocik to create a false trail for the officers. - [Richard] Kocik had proved to be a calculated controlling liar,
but it was Marta's body that would deliver the irrefutable evidence of her final moments.
The autopsy revealed that sometime between the evening of the 29th of April and the 1st of May,
Kocik beat Marta unconscious in a sustained attack that could have lasted minutes or hours
or possibly even days. When he thought she was dead, he wrapped her in curtains and bin bags
and stuffed her into a suitcase with her head between her knees. He then dragged the case half a mile to the canal
before dumping her in the water. So, how did Marta actually die? The widespread heavy bruising tells us
all about her last hours. A bruise is just blood leaking from damaged blood vessels,
but it requires pressure in the bloodstream for that leakage to occur. Marta's body was just covered in bruises,
and it was quite clear that this could only have happened if her heart was still beating.
Although she was alive when she received these injuries, it was the repetitive blunt force trauma
to her torso and legs that killed her. [intense foreboding music] - It's not clear exactly at what point that took place,
but that could have taken place while she was in the suitcase, either when Kocik was walking down
towards the canal or indeed after the suitcase had been placed in the canal, which clearly raises the possibility
that Marta was still alive at either of those points. - Some of the expert evidence showed that some
of the bruising on her body could have been hit by a boat while she was still alive in that suitcase.
He warned the jury not to think of the possibilities around that. Obviously, it's hard not to.
- Something happened for him to think that she was dead. I don't think that he thought
by putting her in a suitcase that would kill her. I think he put her in the suitcase
because he thought she was dead. He probably, at that point, wasn't thinking straight.
He just knew he needed to get rid of Marta's body. The thing is with people like Kocik,
they use violence routinely. They know how far to go. They absolutely do know how far to go.
The idea that they take it too far one day and kill someone, really, there's not a lot to support that.
They know when to stop. I think whatever the challenge was that came from Marta,
it was enough that he took it far enough to kill her, given himself permission to kill her in fact,
and thought that he had done exactly that. - [Richard] The jury saw through Kocik's lies.
That pathology was damning. After deliberating for just over a day, they rejected his defense.
[foreboding tune] - Tomasz Kocik was found guilty of Marta's murder. He was convicted of murder and he was sentenced
to 18 and a half years as a minimum sentence recommendation of his life sentence.
[foreboding tune] - Kocik was a very violent and dangerous man. At trial, Kocik, from my recollection, showed no remorse.
He maintained a very cold demeanor as he sat in the dock at the Old Bailey. After the jury had delivered their verdict,
we were very satisfied that we had secured justice for Marta, her family, and her friends,
and that is of paramount importance in any homicide case. - I think this case was a classic intimate partner homicide.
Very quick, very intense. In some ways, it was different because Kocik was so extreme in his control of Marta,
and I think everybody noticed the changes in her, so you could almost watch this playing out from a distance.
[mysterious music] - She'd obviously been in a very abusive relationship. He was very controlling of her.
And instead of breaking up with her, allowing her to go her own way, he'd brutally beaten her
and stuffed her into a suitcase and dumped her into a canal. Absolutely horrific.
- I've prosecuted a number of homicide cases over the years, but this case particularly stands out in my time
on the homicide unit. Marta Ligman was a young, happy, very kind, and caring young lady
who wanted to come to London to start a new life. The truth of what happened that night
was that Marta was subjected to a violent and brutal attack by the man who she loved and cared for.
That particular point at where Marta's body was discovered is a part of the canal in Little Venice
that I visit frequently. And every time I visit that point at the canal, I always stop and think about Marta.
- Tomasz Kocik had mentally and physically controlled Marta throughout their relationship.
It ended with her murder. He tried to claim that Marta had died of a drug overdose
and that he was innocent of her killing, but the pathologist's report made sure the jury saw through his lies.
Although she never spoke out in life, in death, her body was able to reveal the truth
about what had happened, and put Kocik behind bars. [intense dramatic music]

Dr Richard Shepherd investigates the case of Marta Ligman who was found in a suitcase in London's Grand Canal.

In The Truth About My Murder, Dr. Richard Shepherd showcases a state-of-the-art digital autopsy table featuring digitally scanned sample bodies to investigate a series of intriguing murders where the victims' bodies help reveal the truth behind horrific crimes.

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Brief Summary

Marta Ligman was murdered by her boyfriend Tomasz Kocik, whose abusive behavior led to her tragic death and discovery in a suitcase.

Key points

Murder Investigation Launched. The body of 23-year-old Marta Ligman is found in a suitcase, sparking a murder investigation.
Breakthrough in the Case. A man reports his girlfriend missing, leading to the identification of the body as Marta Ligman.
Signs of Abuse Revealed. Marta's body shows evidence of a long history of physical abuse, raising suspicions about her boyfriend.
Kocik's Deception Unraveled. Kocik misled friends using Marta's Facebook account, raising immediate concerns.
Marta's Body Discovered. Marta's body was found in a suitcase, revealing a history of violence.
Kocik's Trial. Kocik was charged with murder after evidence revealed his lies.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The dead don’t hide the truth and they never lie.

Dr. Richard Shepherd on forensic pathology.

0:35WatchFeb 12, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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