Patryk Palczyński was born on June 3, 1985 in Gdynia. He was the only child of Julitta and Bogusław. The family lived in Tricity. As a child, Patryk enjoyed the charms of the nearby Baltic Sea. He spent a lot of time with his parents on yachts. He took his first steps on a yacht at the age of 4. Julitta and Boguslaw divorced. However, the teenager's love for the sea has withstood the test of time. Sailing turned out to be a passion with which he linked his future.
After graduating from high school, the teenager thought about starting studies at the Gdynia Maritime University. However, the direction that interested him was not created. So Patryk decided that he would not study, just to get a diploma. He wanted to do what he loved. So he began sailing on long foreign voyages.
The first sea voyage lasted a year and a half. Then Patryk decided to go on a Caribbean cruise. This time he wasn't home for six months. The lifestyle of the young man was therefore very different from that of most of us. The young man's path was also different from most of his peers. Palczyński, however, did not mind such work and a long separation from his relatives. In addition, he earned well for his age, and above all, he was doing what he was really passionate about.
Everything changed after returning from the picturesque Caribbean. According to relatives, Patrick began to behave strangely. First of all, he didn't want to talk about the voyage at all. It was unlike him, because before that he was eager to share stories from his sea voyages. He also spent most of his time at the computer. He exchanged dozens of e-mails and text messages with someone.
When the mother, with whom the 24-year-old lived, entered the sailor's room, he covered the screen or turned off the computer. It seemed like he didn't want her to see exactly what he was doing online and who he was texting. The woman thought it was all disturbing. But she didn't pursue the subject, which she later regretted. On the other hand, Patrick was an adult, and if he had a secret, he probably wouldn't reveal it anyway.
After some time, the young man began to plan another cruise. However, he did not reveal many details to his relatives. It is known that he checked out at the office (as he did before previous trips) and gave New Zealand as his new place of residence. It is worth adding that he had to provide a destination, but due to his unusual work, he could only stay there for a short time. Patryk declared that he would return to Poland in 2012 (although this was also probably an estimate).
Finally, June 2, 2010 came, which is the last day of a man in the country. There were several things that raised my mother's suspicions before she left. Firstly, he had packed very little for a trip to the other side of the world. In addition, he also took very little money with him (only a dozen or several dozen euros and 50 dollars). Only after much persuasion did Patryk allow his mother to accompany him (at first she wanted to take him, but she did not agree). They parted shortly before midnight. On June 3, Patrick was supposed to have his birthday. So mother and son celebrated it shortly before leaving. The woman did not know then that these were unfortunately their last moments together.
Days passed, and Patryk gave no sign of life except for a text message he sent shortly after the last meeting with his mother. It is true that he wrote in the message that he turned off the phone. While at sea, he also had limited opportunities to contact his loved ones. However, there was no situation before that he did not speak for such a long time. So, after a few days, Mrs. Julita went to the police station.
The police, however, downplayed the report of a missing person. They suggested that Patrick ran away from his mother because she was a toxic person. The woman who was worried about her son felt even worse after these words. Time passed, and nothing changed in the case of the missing person. So Julia decided to act on her own. First, she checked the computer her son was using.
It turned out that he had several e-mail accounts, which he regularly used. What was even weirder was that all the emails from the past three years had been deleted. This whole situation made my mother even more concerned. New unanswered questions arose.
The breakthrough in the case of the man's disappearance took place on July 14. That day, one of the boats discovered a strange object floating on the surface about seven kilometers from the port of Gdansk. When they got closer, it turned out that it was most likely a human corpse. The police soon arrived at the scene and started an investigation.
Investigators contacted Patryk's mother. The application was in the police database, and Palczyński was seen for the last time in the Tri-City. Mrs. Julita was not surprised because she heard about the macabre discovery in the media. No documents were found, and the body was in an advanced stage of decomposition, which made it difficult to identify the deceased.
When Patryk's mother saw the body, she recognized her son's clothes. However, she was unable to confirm or deny whether it was the body of the missing sailor. DNA tests were ordered to unambiguously settle this. However, it was very likely that Palczyński had been found. In addition to the identity of the deceased, it was still necessary to determine the cause of his death.
There were many indications that third parties were involved in the case. Two heavy (20 kg) flagstones were tied to the body. The deceased's hands were also tied behind his back (as was Rebecca Zahau's), so suicide was unlikely in such a situation.
Patrick's mother, however, noticed a detail that did not fit. It was a necklace with a turtle (according to other sources with an elephant) hung around the neck of the deceased. Mrs. Julita and friends of the missing man agreed that they had never seen Palczyński wear such a pendant. To this day, it is not known who this necklace belonged to.
About a month later, the results of the DNA tests came out. They confirmed that it was Patryk's body that had been fished out of the Baltic Sea. This was not a big surprise, but investigators also considered other possibilities (including the fact that someone else may have been wearing the sailor's clothes). Traces left on ropes tied to paving slabs were also checked. DNA was found of one of the investigators (who probably did not wear gloves, although he should have) and two men who were not listed in the police databases.
For relatives it seemed quite obvious that Palczyński had been murdered. However, investigators concluded that Patrick had committed suicide. The family of the deceased completely disagreed with this. How could he have committed suicide in such an unusual way – carrying very heavy ballast and having his hands tied behind his back? Additionally, the man had no known reason to take his own life.
Patryk's relatives suspected that it was easier for the detectives to close the case than to devote long months to it, which might not bring an answer anyway. Many mistakes were made during the investigation. One of the greatest was that the bonds that bound the sailor were not examined. On this basis, it was possible to deduce whether the person who made them had sailing experience.
Investigators, despite the request of the mother, did not want to examine the watch that belonged to the deceased. It was an Aviator watch with many features that made life at sea easier. Patrick's watch had e.g. an unusual property, thanks to which it stopped when it was no longer worn on the hand. The found watch showed the date of June 8. This meant that the man did not die immediately, but several days after he was last seen.
This scenario was also justified by the watch logging analysis. For several days after his disappearance, he was receiving a signal in the vicinity of the characteristic Sea Towers building in Gdynia. It is suspected that the boy was therefore abducted and held before his death. This hypothesis could also be confirmed by the examination of the stomach, in which no food remains were found. This meant that for at least a few hours (at least 4-6) before his death, Patryk did not eat anything. So it was unlikely that he died shortly after disappearing.
It was also puzzling that part of Patryk's money was found in his pocket. Among them was $20. The sailor's mother, on the other hand, was sure that he had brought a fifty-dollar bill with him. So he must have spent $30 somewhere. Where did he transact in foreign currency and what did he buy? Or maybe he changed money at the exchange office?
Some light on Patryk's fate could be shed by access to monitoring recordings from the vicinity of the port in Gdynia, where the man was last seen. However, the police requested access to the recordings too late, which had already been deleted. It was another oversight by the investigators.
So how did Patrick die? The most likely scenario seems to be that his death had something to do with a cruise in the Caribbean or a recent expedition that never started. The sailor might have witnessed something he should not have seen. It could be, for example, drug smuggling or human trafficking. This would explain the strange behavior of the man and all the messages he exchanged with the mysterious interlocutor (or interlocutors). Perhaps Palczyński was being blackmailed.
This could also explain messages that have been deleted from mailboxes. They could be evidence of a crime that Patryk could have witnessed. People who committed something illegal decided not to risk it and deprived the man of his life. This is of course a theory, but it seems plausible and answers many questions.
The disappearance of Iwona Wieczorek
It is also worth adding that Patryk's case did not receive much media coverage that could help explain the mystery. Three days after finding the man's body, the media picked up the topic, which they basically live to this day. We are talking about the disappearance of Iwona Wieczorek. Palczyński's death is one of those cases that could have turned out completely differently.
Another such case is the disappearance of Sneha Anne Philip, who disappeared just before the September 11 attacks. In the face of this great tragedy, the police did not pay the attention it deserved. On the other hand, it is hardly surprising, given the enormous amount of work they had to do at the time.)
The case of Iwona Wieczorek and Patryk Palczyński has at least several issues in common. First of all, they disappeared at a similar time and place. Moreover, the investigation in both cases was far from perfect. To this day, unfortunately, these two great criminal mysteries have not been solved either. Let's hope that one day the truth will be known about at least one of these cases.
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