Novi Becej: Son Arrested on Suspicion of Murdering Mother

Police in Zrenjanin have arrested M. S. (b. 1986), from the area around Novi Becej, on suspicion that he killed his 69-year-old mother. Her body was found on Thursday, October 1, in a house near Novi Becej, and the arrest was made public on Saturday, October 3. The suspect is charged with aggravated murder.

What did police say about the arrest?

The arrest was carried out on the order of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Zrenjanin. The suspect has been detained for up to 48 hours, after which he will be brought to that office together with a criminal complaint. The prosecutors are leading the investigation.

The police statement gives no circumstances of the death and does not say where the body was kept. It says only that the woman was found in a house in the area around Novi Becej.

What did prosecutors say after the site inspection?

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Zrenjanin spoke on October 2, a day after the body was found. The duty prosecutor, whose name was not given, carried out the on-site inspection together with officers of the Zrenjanin Police Department. The office explained why an autopsy was ordered:

Since the identity of the person found could not be established, and since the state of the scene and the results of the criminal investigation pointed to a suspicion that the death was directly linked to the actions of another person, that is, that it was a murder, an autopsy of the body was ordered.

The body was sent to the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Novi Sad. According to the same statement, the autopsy is to establish identity and sex, the cause of death and the time of death. At that point the prosecutors declined to discuss the legal classification of the offense or a possible perpetrator, promising that the public would be informed of everything that does not endanger the investigation.

What else has been reported but not officially confirmed?

Sources differ on several details. Zrenjanin police told Tanjug that the body was found in the afternoon, while the portal Nova writes that it was in the evening. Police speak of a house in the area around Novi Becej, and RTS of a family house in Novi Becej.

Media, citing unnamed sources, report that parts of the body were found in a freezer. The official police statement contains no such detail. The same sources say the woman’s daughter reported that she could not reach her mother by phone, and that the son was detained right after the body was found and taken to a psychiatric facility, two days before the arrest was announced. According to unofficial information, investigators are examining several possibilities, including that the woman died of natural causes.

A source close to the investigation, speaking to Telegraf, said criminal complaints for domestic violence had been filed against the suspect twice before. The first time he received a suspended sentence, the second time a treatment order in a prison hospital. There is no official confirmation.

What do the neighbors say?

According to media, the victim is S. S., a retired doctor at the Novi Becej health center. A neighbor of the family, who was not named, told the portal Mondo how the house had looked lately:

Lately it seemed as if there was nobody in the house, the blinds were down.

Of the woman, the same neighbor said:

She was a wonderful woman, when she worked here at the health center the patients adored her.

Until the autopsy results come in, the cause of death has not been established. M. S. is presumed innocent until a final verdict, and the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Zrenjanin will decide on further steps after questioning him.