When a passerby called Lithuania’s emergency services on April 12, 2016, to report a man’s body lying beside a gravel road near the Via Baltica highway, veteran homicide investigators initially believed they were dealing with a relatively straightforward case.
Instead, the discovery launched one of the most complex murder investigations ever handled by criminal detectives in Lithuania.
The story is based on the programme Sleuths (Sekliai) on LRT TV.
The victim carried no identification. There were no eyewitnesses. The crime scene yielded few clues beyond a gold cross bearing Slavic inscriptions, distinctive tattoos and unusual tire tracks leading away from the body. Within days, investigators realised they were pursuing a killer whose trail stretched across several countries.
The case, eventually solved through painstaking detective work, international cooperation and a stroke of luck, remains one of modern Lithuania’s most remarkable homicide investigations.
