Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast
Speaker 1: dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime.
Speaker 1: Today's Day twelve, the last day of our twelve days
Speaker 1: of missing person episodes throughout December. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: and for being engaged with the cases. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Today's another episode which was originally a bonus episode on
Speaker 1: Patreon back in March, and I felt like it should
Speaker 1: be in the public domain. Today we're going to be
Speaker 1: discussing the disappearance of twenty year old Ivona Kaminska. Her
Speaker 1: disappearance from the nation's capital was immediately concerning to her
Speaker 1: family in Poland, and the fact that she has still
Speaker 1: not been found is something that haunts her loved ones.
Speaker 1: This episode is about a missing person and so does
Speaker 1: not gain any graphic descriptions. However, there is reference to
Speaker 1: the murder of a child and some reference to sexual assault.
Speaker 1: As always, this is not graphic, but listener discretion is
Speaker 1: always advised. The year two thousand was an iconic year
Speaker 1: for people around the world, and everyone had been waiting
Speaker 1: for the millennium to arrive. The idea of heading into
Speaker 1: a new century was something which equally excited and panicked
Speaker 1: many people. One of the people who had decided that
Speaker 1: two thousand was going to be a fresh start was
Speaker 1: twenty year old Ivona Kaminska. Ivona lived in a town
Speaker 1: around five miles from the city of Lublin in eastern Poland.
Speaker 1: She was close with her family and kept them updated
Speaker 1: about her plans and what she wanted to do with
Speaker 1: her future. She was particularly close to her brother and sister,
Speaker 1: who she spoke too often. One thing that she was
Speaker 1: passionate about was improving her grasp of the English language,
Speaker 1: and this was something that is inspired her to consider
Speaker 1: moving to the UK. If ownA also had friends who
Speaker 1: already lived there, and she believed that she might settle
Speaker 1: in well, given that she could also spend time with
Speaker 1: friends while learning the language. Ivona made her plans during
Speaker 1: the year two thousand to travel to London, and she
Speaker 1: was excited and ready to go. She traveled to the
Speaker 1: UK during early July two thousand and arrived there on
Speaker 1: July ninth. Ifna quickly settled into London life with the
Speaker 1: help of her friends that had already made a life
Speaker 1: for themselves in the city. It's known that she moved
Speaker 1: in with some of these friends who lived close to
Speaker 1: the Arndale Center in Wandsworth in South London. As well
Speaker 1: as finding somewhere to stay, Ivonna also quickly gained employment
Speaker 1: when she arrived in the UK. Within a couple of
Speaker 1: days of arriving in London, if Owa had got herself
Speaker 1: a job at a Polish own business that was located
Speaker 1: on King Street in Hammersmith. The job would be casual
Speaker 1: shifts at a shop. Within just four days of arriving
Speaker 1: in the UK, if ownA had somewhere to live with
Speaker 1: some friends and also a job, this must have been
Speaker 1: an exciting time for her. After planning her future based
Speaker 1: around her success in London, her family eagerly awaited hearing
Speaker 1: from her and all about how she'd been getting on
Speaker 1: since she left Poland. The contact that her family expected
Speaker 1: from her never came, and after several days of not
Speaker 1: hearing from Ivona, her family were very quickly concerned. They
Speaker 1: knew that she would always contact them and this was
Speaker 1: definitely out of character. Even with all of the moving
Speaker 1: and disruption. Her family knew that she would find the
Speaker 1: time to get in touch. If Owa's father Jan stated
Speaker 1: about this. She was in constant contact with her family
Speaker 1: and adored her brother and sister. No contact from Ivona
Speaker 1: was out of character, and we instantly knew something had
Speaker 1: happened to her. This kind of statement is often seen
Speaker 1: from families of missing people who know their love one
Speaker 1: the best and know that they would not just ignore
Speaker 1: them or fail to get in touch. This was how
Speaker 1: Ivona's family felt, given that she was so close to
Speaker 1: not only her parents but also her siblings. She had
Speaker 1: only been in London for a few days, but Ivona
Speaker 1: had somehow dropped off the radar, and this was certainly odd.
Speaker 1: Where could she have gone, why would she have disappeared,
Speaker 1: and how given that she didn't know the city well
Speaker 1: and didn't have the means to go elsewhere. Police got
Speaker 1: involved when they learned that Ivona was missing, and they
Speaker 1: also had concerns due to the short amount of time
Speaker 1: that she had been in London. They began an investigation,
Speaker 1: looking into the few days that Ivona had been in
Speaker 1: the country. There was hope that they would find something
Speaker 1: that would indicate where she might have gone or what
Speaker 1: might have happened to her. Police knew that she'd started
Speaker 1: working at a job on King Street in Hammersmith, and
Speaker 1: so they began looking into this area in particular, Officers
Speaker 1: were able to obtain CCTV from that location and they
Speaker 1: did find Ivona on it on the morning of the
Speaker 1: thirteenth of July, just four days after she'd arrived in London.
Speaker 1: They saw her wearing dark trousers, a dark green knee
Speaker 1: length jacket and had a small leather black handbag with her.
Speaker 1: It reported that Ivona did arrive at work that day
Speaker 1: and that she spent the day packing up glasses. After
Speaker 1: she finished working, Ivona had plans she was supposed to
Speaker 1: be meeting her friend in Wandsworth at around seven pm
Speaker 1: that evening. This is where it appeared something had gone wrong.
Speaker 1: Ivona never turned up to meet her. Police believed that
Speaker 1: Ivonah would have taken the number two through twenty bus
Speaker 1: from Hammersmith bus station and had been doing this at
Speaker 1: around five pm each night. When she'd finished work. That
Speaker 1: bus would have taken her to Wandsworth Andale Center, where
Speaker 1: she would have got off. Police, however, didn't know where
Speaker 1: on this route Ivonner had disappeared, and so trying to
Speaker 1: track down any trace of her was extremely difficult. The
Speaker 1: fact that Ivona had only been in the country four
Speaker 1: days at this point perplexed the police and made a
Speaker 1: motive for this disappearance even more elusive. She did not
Speaker 1: have the means to travel far and she'd only just
Speaker 1: settled into life in London, so this seemed unlikely. This
Speaker 1: left another more sinister outcome. Had a stranger attacktive owner
Speaker 1: on her way home, or had someone who she was
Speaker 1: acquainted with attacked her. Either one of these was hard
Speaker 1: to accept and implied that Ivonna had been hurt or killed.
Speaker 1: At the time, however, there wasn't much to go on
Speaker 1: at all, and the investigation into Avona's disappearance soon went
Speaker 1: cold without much evidence to point to what had happened
Speaker 1: to her. It appeared that at the time police were
Speaker 1: working on the theory that Ivona may have come to
Speaker 1: some harm, given that there was no contact from her
Speaker 1: in the time after she went missing, and she hadn't
Speaker 1: contacted her family. This must have been devastating for Avona's family,
Speaker 1: who didn't know what had happened and were always just
Speaker 1: waiting for answers. During the next couple of decades, Ivona's
Speaker 1: disappearance continued to go unsolved, with little progress being made
Speaker 1: due to the lack of evidence. That officers had. In
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, the Metropolitan Police made a fresh appeal fifteen
Speaker 1: years after Ivona went missing. They put up a ten
Speaker 1: thousand pound reward for anyone who could provide information leading
Speaker 1: to her whereabouts. Detective Constable Nikola Williams of the Met's
Speaker 1: Special Casework Investigation Team said, after fifteen years, we have
Speaker 1: no choice but to fear the worse for Ivona. We
Speaker 1: have conducted several appeals over the years, but now fifteen
Speaker 1: years on hope that someone who was unable to contact
Speaker 1: us before will be able to assist now. We hope
Speaker 1: the reward of ten thousand pounds and the courageous words
Speaker 1: of Ivonna's family will urge someone with that last vital
Speaker 1: clue to speak to us. Ivonna's father, Jan spoke for
Speaker 1: her family during this appeal, stating we have endured fifteen
Speaker 1: years of utter heartache. Ivona was excited to be visiting
Speaker 1: London to see friends and improve her English language. She
Speaker 1: was in constant contact with her family and adored her
Speaker 1: brother and sister. No contact from Ivona was out of
Speaker 1: character and we instantly knew something had happened to her.
Speaker 1: Someone took her from us. All those years ago, and
Speaker 1: we need answers to move on with our lives. Today,
Speaker 1: January twenty second is a Vona's birthday, and she should
Speaker 1: be celebrating turning thirty six instead of celebrating we have
Speaker 1: spent fifteen years longing to hear from our lovely daughter.
Speaker 1: A description of Ivonna was also published with the hope
Speaker 1: that someone may remember her. The description stated that she
Speaker 1: was white, five foot two inches tall, with light brown,
Speaker 1: curly shoulder length hair, and a slim build. There was
Speaker 1: hope that this reward would encourage someone to come forward
Speaker 1: with information, particularly after all these years. If someone had
Speaker 1: been too scared to come forward at the time, they
Speaker 1: may have felt more able to if connections from that
Speaker 1: time had been broken or they'd moved away from the
Speaker 1: area and the community. Police have also stated that they
Speaker 1: believed Ivona had come to harm. Their theory was that
Speaker 1: she may have been kidnapped and possibly killed, and this
Speaker 1: theory had been compounded by the fact that Ivona has
Speaker 1: never been captured on CCTV since and she has not
Speaker 1: contacted anyone since she disappeared on July thirteenth. Ivona's case
Speaker 1: is not the only case of a woman going missing
Speaker 1: in London while traveling alone. And while Ivona's case has
Speaker 1: never been officially linked to any other cases, they are
Speaker 1: worth looking at. Both of the cases are ones I've
Speaker 1: previously covered on the podcast, so feel free to have
Speaker 1: a listen to that episode. Nineteen year old Elizabeth Chow
Speaker 1: disappeared on the sixteenth of April nineteen ninety nine. She
Speaker 1: was a student at Thames Valley University and lived in
Speaker 1: West Ealing. She had dropped off an assignment at the
Speaker 1: university before heading to the student union bar. She was
Speaker 1: last seen on Ealing Broadway at five point fifty pm
Speaker 1: by a friend that even in After that, however, she disappeared,
Speaker 1: and to this day, Elizabeth's disappearance is unsolved. In twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, serial killer Levi Bellfield reportedly confessed to killing
Speaker 1: Elizabeth and named a location in West London where he'd
Speaker 1: hidden her body. Nothing, however, has come from several searches
Speaker 1: and digs to find her. In November last year, police
Speaker 1: stated that they believe Bellfield had lied about the crime
Speaker 1: and the location he had given them. Another case which
Speaker 1: is often linked with Elizabeths is that of twenty seven
Speaker 1: year old Lola Schenkoya in January two thousand, American born
Speaker 1: Lola got off a boss at Ealing Broadway after finishing work.
Speaker 1: She has not been seen since. Both of these cases
Speaker 1: are often spoken about together due to the proximity that
Speaker 1: both women were last seen and their seeming connection and
Speaker 1: to Ealing Broadway. A suspect that is usually spoken about
Speaker 1: as a person of interest is Andre Karanowski. Kanowski was
Speaker 1: a prolific sex offender who had committed many rapes in
Speaker 1: his home country of Poland before traveling over to the UK.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety seven, he murdered twelve year old Katerina
Speaker 1: Kanyeva in her home in Hammersmith in London, and was
Speaker 1: spotted and chased by her father, who returned home and
Speaker 1: interrupted the attack. Despite having a description of the witness
Speaker 1: and having hairs and fingerprints from Kanowski at the time,
Speaker 1: they couldn't connect them to him. He escaped the scene
Speaker 1: and re emerged in two thousand and two when he
Speaker 1: lured a Korean student to his home on the premise
Speaker 1: that he had somewhere she could rent. When she entered
Speaker 1: the home, he began choking and sexually assaulting her. The
Speaker 1: victim managed to escape and told off authorities. Kanowski was
Speaker 1: then arrested and charged for rape and also the murder
Speaker 1: of twelve year old Katerina Konyeva. While they had solid
Speaker 1: evidence for these crimes, police were also interested in him
Speaker 1: as a suspect in the disappearance of Elizabeth Chow and Lolashenkoya,
Speaker 1: given that they disappeared during the period of time between
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven when he murdered Katerina in two thousand
Speaker 1: and two when he was arrested. Did he have anything
Speaker 1: to do with these disappearances. This, some would argue, could
Speaker 1: also include Ivona Kaminska, given that she disappeared in July
Speaker 1: two thousand after leaving her workplace in Hammersmith, which is
Speaker 1: where Kanowski killed Katerina. He was also a Polish immigrant
Speaker 1: and could have had some connection to the Polish community
Speaker 1: in Hammersmith during this time. This is unknown and is speculation.
Speaker 1: It is worth, however, examining all theories in this cold
Speaker 1: case disappearance. I'm sure that this is something that police
Speaker 1: have looked into in the years that Ivona has been missing.
Speaker 1: Ivona's case is such a sad one, as she had
Speaker 1: such hope for her future and she was trying to
Speaker 1: forge a new life for herself in the UK. She
Speaker 1: had faith in the country, and unfortunately, due to someone's
Speaker 1: awful actions, she was let down. She had her whole
Speaker 1: life ahead of her and this was cut short. Despite
Speaker 1: the nearly twenty five years since she disappeared, there is
Speaker 1: always some hope that the case will be solved and
Speaker 1: Ivona will be located. It just takes the right person
Speaker 1: to come forward with information. If you know anything about
Speaker 1: Ivona Kaminska's disappearance in July two thousand, please contact police
Speaker 1: on one oh one. Our crime stoppers are eight hundred
Speaker 1: five ft five one one one. If you want to
Speaker 1: know more about any of the other cases I've spoken about,
Speaker 1: you can listen to my episode about Elizabeth Chow and
Speaker 1: Lola Sheen Koya in the main feed, and also case
Speaker 1: Filed did a great episode about the crimes of Andre
Speaker 1: Kanowski which could give you more context. I will link
Speaker 1: these in the show notes. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: today's episode, and again thanks so much for listening throughout
Speaker 1: this month of missing person cases. I'll be back in
Speaker 1: a few weeks where the usual episodes resume, but I
Speaker 1: will be taking a few weeks to recover from all
Speaker 1: these extra episodes. If you'd like to support us further,
Speaker 1: then you can on Patreon and contribute to exclusive polls
Speaker 1: to get extra bonus episodes every month. You can also
Speaker 1: get access to new episodes early in ad free. You
Speaker 1: can use the link in the show notes to visit
Speaker 1: Patreon and see what we offer. You can also support
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Speaker 1: and also just share the episodes. You can subscribe on
Speaker 1: YouTube and follow us on social media. As always, I'm
Speaker 1: Caprice and this has been unseen