Most disappearances reach a critical point – a moment when contact breaks off and loved ones begin to suspect the worst. The case of 40-year-old Sewer Gaca from Rabka-Zdrój, who disappeared at the end of October 2013, is quite unusual in this respect.
Four days after the man was last seen at work, a city centre ATM camera captured him at 4:00 a.m. Sever stood alone, withdrawing cash, and smiling broadly. Instead of helping solve the mystery, this footage became its most disturbing aspect.
Sewer Gaca was born on April 16, 1973, in Rabka-Zdrój. For years, he lived with his parents and sister in an apartment building on Sądecka Street. His family and friends remembered him as a man of high personal culture, a gallant gentleman, and a meticulous craftsman who took exceptional care of his surroundings. He kept his apartment in immaculate condition, and out of respect for his neighbours, he rarely invited guests over, so as not to disturb them with loud music or conversation.
Severus was a trained educator, though he never worked in a school or educational institution. During his compulsory military service, he distinguished himself among his peers. However, he rejected an offer to become a professional soldier. He valued the independence and freedom that military service could not provide.
Entering the job market at the turn of the 1990s and 2000s, a period of high unemployment, wasn't easy for him. Initially, he worked manual labour on construction sites, taking on various jobs to keep his parents' finances in check. Eventually, he found stable employment at a Mix Electronics retailer in Nowy Targ, specialising in consumer electronics and home appliances. He worked there for seven years.
As a salesman, he excelled—he was meticulous, elegant, and universally liked by his customers. Severus's life seemed simple and peaceful. He devoted his free time to his passions: reading, hiking, and music. He played guitar and collected records—his favourite genres were rock, blues, and jazz.
Severus's greatest dream was to start a family. However, his sensitivity meant that painful disappointments in love left a deep mark on him. His first serious disappointment came when he went abroad to work hard to earn enough to start a business with his beloved. Upon his return, he discovered that she had already moved on to someone else. His second relationship also ended in failure. After these events, Severus bitterly told his friend, Grzegorz Werner, that he was retiring from "love" and giving up on finding a partner.
These failures led to a mental health crisis and alcohol problems. A disturbing incident occurred when Sewer disappeared for hours. A friend found him drunk in a motel on the outskirts of Rabka and took him to his home for the night. In the morning, Sewer started a fight, demanding to be let out for more alcohol. After leaving his friend's house, he drove to Nowy Targ, where he eventually fell asleep on a park bench. His family received a call from passersby calling the municipal police.
This event became a turning point for Sewer. He entered therapy, significantly reduced his alcohol intake, and began intensively rebuilding his relationship with his family—his parents and sister, who had since moved to the Krakow area. He visited them frequently, spending weekends near Krakow completely sober. He was a devoted uncle to his sister's children, always bringing them fruit or small gifts during his visits.
On Friday morning, October 25, 2013, Sewer met Grzegorz Werner on the street, who was taking his daughter to music school. A friend invited him for the weekend, but Sewer declined, explaining that he had to work Saturday and Sunday. So they arranged a different date.
Sewer boarded a bus from Rabka-Zdrój to Nowy Targ. At the beginning of his shift at the Mix Electronics store, he acted normally. However, after a few hours, the shift manager smelled alcohol on his breath – the first time this had happened in seven years of impeccable service. Krystian Majchrowicz, not only the store manager but also a longtime friend of Sewer's from the same neighbourhood, was urgently called to the scene.
During the conversation, Sewer acted unusually. He admitted to his colleague that he had a difficult problem he needed to consider, but didn't provide any details. The manager sent the salesman home, promising to visit him in Rabka that evening to calmly discuss his concerns. When Krystian arrived at Sewer's apartment building that evening, the intercom was silent.
The colleague continued to try to contact him throughout the weekend, knocking and calling repeatedly, but the phone remained silent, and the door remained locked. Initially, his colleagues didn't raise the alarm because Sever had planned days off before the upcoming All Saints' Day holiday, and it was assumed he had gone to visit family near Krakow.
When it turned out that the man had not reached his loved ones or made any contact with them, the concerned family came to Rabka. On Tuesday, October 29, 2013, a missing person's report was filed with the police. The police searched the missing man's apartment. The interior was in perfect order, no clothes were missing, and all personal documents, including Sever's ID card, were found at the scene. There were no signs of a struggle or the presence of third parties.
During the investigation, police checked the missing man's bank account for activity. They discovered that on Tuesday, October 29th—the day he was reported missing—an amount of PLN 800 was withdrawn from a PKO BP ATM on Brzozowa Street in Rabka-Zdrój. This was half of Sewer's monthly salary, which was approximately PLN 1,600 at the time.
Analysis of surveillance footage revealed the most puzzling piece of evidence in the case. The transaction took place at 4:00 a.m. The secured video shows Sever standing alone in front of the ATM. He was smiling broadly, appearing relaxed and in excellent spirits. This contrasted sharply with the depression and anxiety his colleagues had described on Friday.
Another clue was his cell phone activity. The device remained on from Friday to Wednesday, October 31st, logging in continuously within the vicinity of the BTS station in Rabka-Zdrój, suggesting that Sewer had not left the city. During this period, only one successful call was made from the phone – on Tuesday, to a friend of his, Adam, who lives in the Tricity area.
The call lasted only a few seconds. When Adam answered, all he heard was shuffling and objects being moved. Everything points to this being an accidental dialing – Adam was at the very top of Sever's alphabetically sorted contact list. The phone then made two more attempts to call nonexistent, random numbers.
There were also reports from witnesses who claimed to have seen Sewer on Tuesday morning in the area of Zakopiańska Street, on the border of Rabka and Chabówka, but this trail did not lead to any breakthrough.
Popular hypotheses
Investigators and relatives considered several variants of events, each of which carries significant contradictions:
- Suicide: Personal problems and the potential loss of his job may have deepened his depression. This theory posits that the smile in the ATM video may have been an expression of relief after making the final decision. However, contradictions remain: the withdrawal of 800 złoty at 4:00 a.m. (the money would have been useless), the absence of a suicide note (although, in practice, many suicides do not leave one), and the fact that despite extensive searches by the police and the Mountain Volunteer Search and Rescue (GOPR), his body was never found.
- mental disorders: mood changes, nocturnal activity and smiling may have resulted from a manic episode in the course of undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
- Robbery: Severus may have been spotted at dawn with cash in the city center, attacked, killed, and his body hidden. However, no signs of a struggle or blood were found in the center of Rabka.
- an unfortunate accident in the mountains: the man loved mountain expeditions, but he left his trekking shoes, backpack and equipment in the apartment, which makes a solo trip into difficult terrain unlikely.
- Escape and start a new life: This theory is the least likely – 800 złoty and no documents are not enough to start over, especially considering the strong bonds that connected Severus with his family. No activity was ever recorded on his account again.
In June 2018, hope for a breakthrough emerged when a man's body was recovered from the Vistula River in the village of Dworek near Oświęcim. Initial, imprecise computer facial reconstructions resembled Severus, but subsequent, more detailed examination of the image and DNA tests ultimately ruled out any relationship.
Nearly 13 years after his mysterious disappearance, the case reached a formal, albeit painful, conclusion for his family. On March 20, 2026, the District Court in Nowy Targ published an official announcement of the proceedings to declare Sewer Gaca dead. The court set a three-month deadline for the missing person or anyone who could provide information about his fate to come forward. That deadline has now passed, and Sewer has likely been legally declared dead.
Theoretically, one of the most enigmatic cases in the Lesser Poland X-Files has been closed . In practice, however, we still don't know what happened to Severus, just as we don't know the answers to many other pressing questions – why did the man get drunk at work, what did he do over the next few days, and what did he use the ATM money for?
No comments:
Post a Comment