Law&Crime Sidebar - Miss Switzerland Finalist Strangled, ‘Pureed’ in Blender by Husband: Police

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Swiss prosecutors have charged the husband of former Miss Switzerland finalist Kristina Joksimovic with murder in a case marked by staggering brutality. Joksimovic, an international model, mentor, and mother of two, was allegedly strangled in her home, then dismembered with a jigsaw and her remains blended and chemically destroyed. Her husband initially told police he found her dead before claiming self-defense — a version investigators say is flatly contradicted by the evidence. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the newly filed murder charges, the disturbing forensic details revealed by court documents, and what this case could hinge on at trial with criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Safa Robinson-Ferrer.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Download the SAN app at https://san.com/sidebar for Unbiased, Straight factsHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The man accused of killing his wife, dismembering her, decapitating her, and puraying her remains using a blender, has just been charged with murder. Let's talk about it. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

Look, let me say something as we cover a story like this. Staying on top of the news is so important, but with all the media bias these days, who knows what to believe? That's why I want to introduce you to our sponsor, Straight Hour News. Straight Hour News is a personalized news platform that gives readers fact-based journalism to inform and build trust. Its media miss tool shows readers' headlines that are not seen in mainstream outlets, providing useful commentary that cuts through all of that sensational spend.

Their site, their app, it points out the bias with their media landscape tool to group sources by political leaning for full transparency. So if you're ready for a better way to get the news, go to san.com slash sidebar or just click the link in my description. This is straight hour news, skip the drama, get the facts. Welcome back to trustworthy journalism. Long crime has been following this absolutely insane story since the beginning. You can check it out. Sierra Gillespie covered it as well.

The details are so shocking. They are almost impossible to forget, as much as you might try. We have an international model, a former Miss Switzerland finalist, who was apparently strangled, dismembered with a jigsaw, and then police say her remains were pureed in a blender, all by the one person who should have protected her the most, her own husband. She was a mentor, a mother of two, and her life ended in an act of such brutal violence. Now, her husband was arrested, first said he found her dead, then changed his story, claiming self-defense that she attacked him with her. the knife. The evidence told a very different, horrifying tale, though. And now there is a major update. Prosecutors have just officially charged him with murder. We're going to dig into the new charging documents, the chilling details they contain about what allegedly happened in that house.

This is one of the most disturbing cases that we have ever covered. And it all centers on two people. Christina, Jaximovic, and her husband, a man identified in Swiss court documents and media as Thomas. There are Swiss privacy laws in place, so he's only being identified as Tom. Thomas. Christina was a 38-year-old from Binigan, Switzerland. She wasn't just any woman. He was a former model, a Miss Switzerland finalist. She had won the Miss Northwest Switzerland pageant back in 2003. But by 2024, her career had evolved. She was helping people. She had founded her own catwalking coaching business, where she mentored aspiring models. We can actually hear her inner element coaching a young woman. My name is Christina, the Catwell coach, and I'm preparing

Natalie for her big show. Let's start with the first pose. If you want to look confident and sexy, take a step aside, turn and lean back slightly. If you're wearing a dress, take one step ahead, lean back to highlight your left. In 2017, Christina got married. She and her husband Thomas, they shared two young daughters together. From the outside, they appeared to be a picture-perfect family living in an affluent area. And you know what? Just four weeks. weeks before she died, Christina posted photos online of a romantic couples getaway at a luxurious hotel. But then you go to February 13, 2024. Everything changed. Christina's parents got a call from their granddaughter's kindergarten that Christina hadn't shown up to pick them up. So worried,

her father went to the family home. Husband was there, the suspect, told Christina's father that he didn't know where she was. Allegedly told Christina's father that he didn't know where she was. Now, apparently while Thomas was distracted, Christina's father searched the house, goes down to the basement laundry room, described as this isolated bunker-like space. And there he sees this large black trash bag with what looked like blonde hair sticking out of it. So he opened it. And apologies for how gruesome this is, but inside this father, you know what he discovered? He found his daughter's severed head. Police were called. They arrived. They took over the scene. Christine's husband was arrested in connection with her death.

But now all these months later, we have a major new development. On December 10th, nearly what, 10 months after Christina was found, the public prosecutor's office announced that it had concluded its investigation and filed formal charges. Christina's husband has been officially charged with murder and disturbing the peace of the dead. All right, want to break all this down, want to get a legal expert on who has seen both sides of the courtroom. Criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, Safa Robinson-Fererah, thanks so much for take of the time. I know this is a really, really difficult case to cover. But it hits on something that we've seen a lot in domestic homicide investigations, the changing story. From I found her to I killed her in self-defense. I don't care if it's a case here or abroad from your perspective

as both a former prosecutor and defense attorney, how do investigators typically dismantle a case like that. I mean, how much is it a problem to say, well, you found her now at self-defense. You could, I guess, argue, oh, it was panic. He maybe didn't think immediately that someone believed the self-defense argument. On the other hand, it doesn't appear that there is anything at this point to support that. I think oftentimes in cases like this, the self-defense argument doesn't come into play until the defendant realizes that they've essentially been caught and that there are things that they can't explain away. For example, they can't explain away. For example, they can't explain away how their DNA was at the crime scene. And of course, maybe they lived together

in this particular instance. But there's nothing that would indicate that anybody else could have committed the crime. The timeline of events with respect to this case are fully established where the husband in this particular case, there couldn't have been anybody else but him as the perpetrator. There's no alibi or anything like that. Oftentimes in domestic violence cases, and we hear this a lot, investigators preliminarily look at the spouse, the hundred or the wife as a possible suspect because unfortunately oftentimes those are the individuals that are responsible for domestically related homicides more often than that so that's where investigators will typically begin their investigation having conversation with this individual

and then that person for whatever reason says oh it wasn't me i just found her there because they haven't yet concluded in their mind what their best defense is going to be and until they are right-handed, for lack of a better way to put it, by investigators forcing them to say, well, yeah, it wasn't actually at the store. I was actually home because the ring camera footage shows them there at the time. Then they have to start concocting something that is more so of a self-defense-related theory for themselves. And that's where things begin to change. And it really goes to their credibility over time. If the cases make it to trial, then the jury's going to be able to see, well, initially they told this one story. Then they changed their story

once they realized that they couldn't explain away certain pieces of evidence. To be clear, though, and like we're talking about this in the middle of the Brian Walsh case as well, if there's evidence that significant other dismembered a body, mutilated a body, it's hard to even grasp somebody doing that. And maybe a jury would say, if they have the will to do that to somebody that they loved, potentially loved, it's not a far stretch to think that they murdered them as well. The other way of looking at it is if you have evidence of dismembered, doesn't necessarily mean that that person murdered the victim in this case, right?

Particularly if the body is in such a state where you can't easily determine what happened to them, or there might be a situation where the body's not found. So as bad as this evidence of mutilation is, and I have to explore it a little bit more, and there is evidence, by the way, about what might have happened to her. But as bad as the mutilation here is, and it's one of the worst I've ever heard in my entire life, It doesn't necessarily always mean that they're guilty of murder. That's definitely true. And we have scenarios where just throwing out a hypothetical, you might have someone coming home and their partner is deceased.

Maybe there was some drug abuse or something of that nature. And because of that and because they don't want to get found out about it, they don't know what to do. Maybe if they participated in those things as well, then they try to conceal what ultimately happened. And there's a certain charge in certain jurisdictions called conceal. of a corpse or dismemberment of a corpse and things of that nature. So sometimes, and I've seen on a very few rare occasions where they cannot prove that the defendant actually murdered the individual, but they can prove that the person tampered with evidence, dismembered the body, and other things of that nature.

Because in order to convict somebody of a murder, there has to be an establishment of facts that this person intentionally killed this person and how they did that. If you've got dismemberment, if you've got other things at play, it may be different. for a medical examiner to truly determine how that occurred. But the problem is it's coupled with everything else the defendant does. Like, for example, here, okay, allegedly giving false information about what happened here and not telling Christina's own father what happened. I mean, it was Christina's own father who found the remains.

When you hear that, how does it impact the case, both in terms of, you know, the emotional weight for a jury, but also the credibility. It gives to the investigation. It gives to what this defendant was really up to. The father finds the remains, finds the decapitated head. That, I feel, is going to be a big factor that has to be considered. Absolutely. And it's completely gut-wrenching.

If a jury has to hear that a father, that a parent found their child, dismembered in such a gruesome and horrific way, there's some sympathy that will likely enter into a person's, mind for that father and for the victim here in this case. Now, a judge will always instruct at least here in the U.S. that sympathy cannot enter your deliberations. However, jurors are human, and those emotions will come into play with that. Not only that, but I think that jurors are going to consider and think about it. And we do know a little bit more about this case and the manner of how it happened. But jurors are also going to think about, well, if they live together, why was the father the

one to find her body in this way and not the husband? And if the husband found her in this way, why would he not have immediately called 9-1-1, rendered help, rendered some sort of aid, something to that effect. But again, going back to my initial point was in these cases, a lot of times you see that the spouse is often responsible, and investigators look at the spouse because of the nature of these types of relationships. Can you explain something to me? We have this significant time gap. What was it, 10 months between the arrest and the formal charges? I don't know that criminal law system very well, but from the outside, that seems very, very long. based on your experience, what would be the reasons?

What kind of maybe complex forensic investigative steps would be happening behind the scenes that would lead to a delay like that? It's certainly a long period of time. However, the things that could come into play and what probably has come into play here is the forensics and is the medical examination and toxicology reports on the victim. The likelihood is that because of the toxicology, because of the medical examination, that would have needed to occur in this case to fully establish the manner of death, the timeline of death, and all of those other sorts of things are probably the reason why this

has taken so long. There are a number of tests and examinations that the medical examiners do in these cases, again, including toxicology, including a review of the body to determine, again, what that specific manner of death was. And I think here it was ultimately ruled to have be strangulation prior to the dismemberment of the body. So those are always. all things that come into play. And they take time. They do take time. So I think that's probably why we've seen that 10-month gap here. Also, the investigators have to do their due diligence with speaking to witnesses, piecing the timeline together, and really solidifying their case against the defendant. And those things also take time. I want to start with the foundation of

the prosecution's case. So it's the cause of death and what happened after. Now, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ruling reviewed by local outlet BZ Basil. details this horrific sequence of events. It states that after Christina was strangled, her body was dismembered in the laundry room using a jigsaw, a knife, and garden shears. And the court documents then describe how several body parts were subsequently shredded

with a hand blender, that they were pured, that they were dissolved in a chemical. I think this is the worst episode of dismemberment I've ever heard, of disposing of a body than I've ever heard. So we have the methods of killing, we have the tools, but the court's assessment of the accusation of the accused behavior, that is what stands out. Because they wrote that his entire conduct

indicates a significant propensity for violence, that in some cases exhibiting what they called sadistic, sociopathic traits. They noted he displayed a remarkably high level of criminal energy, a lack of empathy, cold-bloodedness after killing his wife. I can't say, soft, I'm surprised by that conclusion. But what is that language from the court itself due to this case? What does that signify to you? Not surprising from that conclusion either. And I really noted and what really stood out to me was the criminal energy. And so for the courts to make this type of conclusion tells me that they've done their own assessment to the facts of the case, maybe through a hearing or other information, documents and depositions that they may have reviewed and taken a totality and given their opinion on the case. Now, again, in the United States, judges don't really do that. They might give some opinions maybe in a chambers conference or things like that on what they would. do with the case if it ultimately wants a trial. But the court here has made it very clear that this particular defendant has that sadistic propensity, has that criminal energy in nature. And so

I think that there is a concern on behalf of the court with the direction that this case may go and wants to ensure the integrity of the case and the integrity of any conviction that ultimately may come down. And it seems they're making clear this is not somebody who was in a situation where they panicked and they just tried to get rid of the body. This part, I'm going to read you something else that really is, um, it's tough to hear. So the details from the autopsy report, again, as cited in the court's judgment, they became even more specific because as detailed in a report from the Daily Mail, which cites the autopsy directly, it confirms the decapitation, but it notes a unique, deliberate mutilation.

The careful removal of the victim's womb, which was the only organ cut out. And the court itself refers to this as evidence of what they call a deliberate mutilation, or ritualized degradation of the body, which they believe indicates the appellant has a mental disorder. Let's start right there, Safa. Why remove the womb? I mean, that feels to me what escalates this as if it couldn't even be escalated more, but what separates this from other cases. It's definitely a significant question specific to the womb. You know, it makes me think about or wonder if, you know, in some type of, you know, enragement based off of maybe some infidelity, or what type of crime of passion or what would have invoked this individual to essentially cut out one of the most intimate parts of this woman.

And considering that they are or were married at a point have children, that the level of just gruesomeness and attention to that particular area of her body really gives me pause as an attorney and generally speaking, anybody pause to say, what would make someone do that? And again, to the court's point, the mutilation, the sadisticness. Who would do that? But ultimately, you know, looking into the mind, the state of mind of an individual who has the ability to do something like this is ultimately really at playing that question here. So all of those things are going to be taken together. The facts of the case as they've established it to be, the mental health or the competency of the particular defendant in this case, the nature of the relationship, which we know is domestic. Any prior domestic evidence, we've got the fact that the father was the one that located his daughter. And so all of those things taken into totality will come into play with this case. And by the way, I forgot to mention the investigative findings noted that in the court documents that were reported by the Daily Mail state that while dismembering the body, the accused played YouTube videos on his phone. So while this is going on, it goes back to this part where they talk about a mental illness,

right, where they talk about that this could be evidence of a mental disorder. So how does that factor in all of this, the brutality, the deliberate action, the meticulousness, of this, I mean, if these allegations are true, are we talking a mental disorder of some kind, a defense of some kind? It is very possible. There might be some type of psychiatric defense here. Here in the United States, and particularly in New York, we have what we call a 730 competency. Is this individual competent enough to testify? Can this individual formulate required culpable mental state at the time of the offense to establish the murder? Again, when you're talking about intentionally killing somebody, the prosecution of the government has to prove that that person

acted within time. If there is some mental health implications or some type of psychosis that is going on with the defendant at that time, that is going to be a hurdle that the prosecution or the government has to get over is can that required mental state be formulated if an individual has been under psychosis at that time? I'll also say this, the charges. Okay. So the prosecutor's office announced on December 10th that they have filed charges of murder and disturbing the peace of the dead. I get the murder charge, Safa, disturbing the piece of the dead. Do we have something similar like that here in the United States?

Is it something that's coupled with a murder charge? I haven't seen that here in New York. It's very possible that other jurisdictions may have those things. And that more so sounds like maybe a law that has been on the books for quite some time. And there are some states and jurisdictions that may have that. Here, particularly in New York, you have offenses like dismemberment, sealment of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and those essentially would fit the requirements for that type of offense in Switzerland. I'll just tell you, this is really sick stuff. This is

really, really sick stuff. I don't even know what to say about something like this. I read it, and it struck me, and I remember Sierra had first reported on it, struck me. And so, you know, we'll see where this case progresses, but my heart goes out to the children. The children, I don't know how they navigate life now after this. Safa Robinson-Ferre, thank you so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Jesse. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody.

Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, the podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.