A gruesome murder case has come to light in Derby, where a woman is accused of killing her partner and burying her body in the back garden of their home. The case dates back to 2010, when Izabela Zablocka, a Polish national, went missing and was presumed dead.
The suspect, Anna Podedworna, 40, has been charged with Zablocka’s murder, as well as preventing her lawful burial and perverting the course of justice. According to prosecutors, the two women had moved to the UK together in search of work, initially living in London before relocating to a terraced house in Prince’s Street, Derby, in 2010.
On 28 August of that year, Zablocka, who was 30 at the time, called her mother in Poland, and nothing seemed amiss. However, after that call, her family never saw or heard from her again. Prosecutors allege that shortly after the call, Podedworna murdered Zablocka, dismembering her body and burying it in the back garden.
The court heard that Podedworna had previously worked as a skilled butcher, with experience in deboning and portioning turkey carcasses using a large knife. Prosecutors believe this expertise was used to dispose of Zablocka’s body, which was discovered buried under concrete in the garden in June 2025.
Podedworna initially denied any knowledge of Zablocka’s whereabouts, but in May 2025, she contacted the police and confessed to killing her partner. However, she claimed it was an accident during a violent confrontation, and that she had acted in self-defence. Prosecutors have dismissed this claim as “yet another lie” to conceal her guilt.
The case has been described as a “cross-border investigation,” with Zablocka’s daughter, who was living in Poland when her mother went missing, eventually contacting a Polish organization called Missing for Years. This led to the involvement of a Polish TV journalist, Rafal Zalewski, whose interview with Podedworna in Derby is said to have been a “tipping point” in the investigation.
The trial, which is expected to last around four weeks, continues, with the jury set to hear more details about this shocking and disturbing case.
