The Misery Machine - The Case of Kristina Joksimovic

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

This week, Drewby and Yergy head to Switzerland to discuss the case of 38-year-old Kristina Joksimovic, a 38-year-old former model and Miss Switzerland finalist who was found dead in her home in Binningen, near Basel, in February 2024. In December 2025, her husband, Marc Rieben, was formally charged with her murder following a detailed investigation that revealed exceptionally gruesome details about the crime. An autopsy report concluded she was strangled, and forensic evidence contradicted her husband's initial claim that he acted in self-defense after she allegedly attacked him with a knife. However, authorities revealed that after the murder, Marc allegedly dismembered Kristina's body using a jigsaw, garden shears, and a knife. He then allegedly used a hand blender to "puree" parts of her remains and dissolved them in a chemical solution in an attempt to dispose of the evidence.Support Our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠PayPal: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join Our Facebook Group: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: miserymachinepodcastTwitter: misery_podcastDiscord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#themiserymachine #podcast #truecrimeSource Materials Available Upon Request.

On February 13th, 2024, a father sat down for dinner with his son-in-law and his two young grandchildren. He had been trying to reach his daughter for days. He was told not to worry about own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes. and secure a spot in the finale May 29th. Don't pass go and own it all.

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After the horror set in, he realized the man who did this to his daughter, her husband, the man who told him repeatedly not to worry, was still upstairs with his grandkids. Christina Yaksimovych was born to Serbian parents on April 15th, 1985 in Basel, Switzerland. She was described as extremely friendly, detail-oriented, and deeply passionate about empowering other women. Those close to her remember her as a beautiful soul who was always smiling, and a wonderful friend to so many. A 2007 news outlet described her as someone who enjoyed volleyball and who loved films and documentaries based on true stories like Blow starring Johnny Depp. She was down to earth, loved reading books such as The Alchem. and considered her hands the most beautiful part of her body.

Christina had a passion for the beauty and fashion industry. In 2003, she was crowned Miss Northwest Switzerland. In 2007, she reached the top 16 finalists in the Miss Switzerland pageant. She didn't win, but it was still a major accomplishment and a proud moment for her family. After those competitions, she earned attention for her elegant and confident catwalk technique and began getting booked for more and more short. shows. She became so sought after that she launched her own coaching and consulting agency called Catwalk Coach. Through it, she helped women feel more confident in their femininity and trained

aspiring models on how to walk, sit, stand, and speak and present themselves under the spotlight. One of her standout clients, Dominique Rinderknecht, went on to win Miss Switzerland in 2013 and was also selected for the Miss Universe pageant that same year. Christina spent countless hours coaching Dominique, practicing walks, poses, and facial expressions. She crafted a unique and distinctive walk just for her. In an interview, Christina said about Dominique, she understands incredibly quickly what it's about and implements it quickly. She needs to become a little looser and more natural. In addition to coaching, she served as a lead supervisor for the Miss Switzerland organization. Yon modeling, she built a strong career in IT and HR recruitment, working

with major companies like Google. From 2013 through the end of 2017, she worked for an IT firm. In her own words, she connected the glamour world in the technology industry. It seemed that she succeeded at almost everything she pursued.

Unfortunately, marriage was... Where is Daredevil? Am I here? Don't miss the return of Marvel Television's Daredevil born again. So what's next? I've been liberated. We're going to take this city back.

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In September of 2017, Christina married a man named Mark Reuben. Swiss media initially kept his identity private, referring to him only as Thomas, but eventually the public figured out who he really was. Mark was the son of a prominent lawyer from Bairn. On the surface, he seemed just as accomplished as Christina was. He was an entrepreneur, a consultant, a coach, and a scout leader. Their marriage together started off normally. They lived in an oppressive house in a wealthy neighborhood in Basel.

In 2020, they welcomed a baby girl, followed by another daughter the following year. To everyone watching, they appeared to be proud and loving parents. After the girls were born, the relationship turned rocky. Mark would frequently withdraw and stop speaking to Christina entirely. He was controlling and would yell at his wife over very minor things, and sometimes he resorted to violence. On July 14, 2023, Christina called the police after he grabbed her by the neck, pinned her against the wall, and assaulted her.

When officers arrived, they documented that they saw visible strangulation, marks on her neck. She later told a friend that he had warned her not called the authorities. She also admitted he was a heavy drinker and sometimes used drugs. Children were also under his control. He was obsessed with his professional image and he argued about how the girls were dressed, insisting that they look perfect at all times as if they represented his brand. Christina resisted those demands because she wanted a genuinely happy family, not just a flawless appearance. Eventually, she realized he wasn't someone she wanted in her life. She began considering divorce and consulted a lawyer about her options.

Even so, she stayed quiet about the troubled marriage and continued posting pictures of their seemingly perfect family on Instagram. Close friend of Christina's who spoke anonymously to news sources described Mark as a ticking time bomb, said she had warned Christina over and over to be careful. She described Mark as really introverted, very critical, and sometimes quite arrogant, and said he didn't suit her at all. Jal said Mark was really derogatory with her, with gestures, words, and even his tone. The friend also noted that Christina and Mark tried couples counseling.

Separately, the friend expressed fear for her own safety, saying if he gets out, all of us are dead in the water, especially his children. Just days before she vanished, Christina and Mark took a vacation to Lake Lucerne. She shared photos on Instagram that looked like a romantic getaway, but the reality was very different. On the drive, Mark told her he was looking forward to an argument so he could have an excuse to go home early to his girls.

That evening at dinner, he insulted other couples for no reason. And Christina asked him to stop, he snapped and stormed out to leave her alone. After they returned to Basil, she disappeared. Christina's parents hadn't heard from her in several days, which was an unusual break in contact. Her friends grew worried, too, as... I wrote a little song to remind you, choice hotels. you more of the experiences you value.

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The concern deepened when her father received a call from his grandchildren's preschool saying she hadn't picked them up. He immediately called Mark, who claimed he didn't know where she was and said sometimes she disappeared and would return. Her father, however, wasn't convinced. He picked up his grandchildren and went to her home, searching for any signs of her. Finding nothing, he tried to stay hopeful. That hope ended on February 13, 2024, when he returned to the house. He spoke openly with Mark about his fears, but Mark seemed mostly indifferent about his missing wife. Her father stayed for several hours, played with the grandchildren, and even ate dinner with Mark. And Christina's father went down to the isolated bunker with thick concrete walls in the basement where the couple's

laundry room was located. He spotted blonde hair strands sticking out from a large trash bag. Alarmed, he looked inside, and what he found was horrific. It was his daughter's head in several of her body parts. He panicked, flagged down a passer-by, and asked them to call the authorities. Detectives that arrived at Mark's home were stunned. The brutality was unlike anything they had seen in their careers. Besides Christina's severed head, there were clear signs of extreme violence. strangulation marks on her neck, facial wounds, multiple bruises on her right thigh and shoulder blades, small hemorrhages throughout her scalp, hair torn out by the roots, a fractured hyoid bone, and hemorrhaging tongue bites.

Christina's official cause of death was listed as central regulatory failure in asphyxiation, but killing her wasn't enough for Mark. He then mutilated her body. Parts of her skull were missing. He sawed away at her femur and hip socket, cut her spine between the second and third cervical vertebrae, and separated her torso from her pelvis. The only part removed with care was her uterus. He cut the vaginal vault at the cervix and extracted it intact. All of this happened in the laundry room. He used a jigsaw, a knife, and garden shears. He also pured some of Christina's remains. with an industrial blender he later claimed was for the scouts,

and only temporarily in his basement, but it appears he acquired it specifically for this purpose. He dissolved other body parts and chemicals and attached her phone to a delivery truck apparently to mislead investigators about her last location. Phone record showed something even more chilling. Folks knew the colonel approved of his new honey chili crisp and jalapeno ranch sauces the moment he tasted them and said,

That's right. No notes. Just absolute silence. Turns out some flavors don't need explaining. They just need dipping. It's saucy season at KFC with new honey, chili crisp and jalapeno ranch. Get dipping with a boneless bucket today. Prices and participation vary. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. designing a website to marketing, to selling, and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and all birds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into, sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash special offer. While dismembering her, he watched YouTube videos as though bored in needing a distraction. Mark was arrested on Valentine's Day of 2024. As officers handcuffed him, he shouted at his father-in-law that if he had stayed silent,

no one would have found her and everyone would have been better off. He showed zero remorse. During questioning, he quickly confessed then changed his story. He claimed he came home late, found his wife dead on the stairs, panicked, and tried to stage and dispose of her body. When forensics contradicted him, he shifted again saying that Christina attacked him with a knife, and so he used it to kill her in self-defense, then became a moose. emotionally driven and acted without thinking. Forensics disproved that, too,

as all mutilation occurred post-mortem. From the beginning, it was obvious Mark had serious mental health issues. Evaluations pointed towards psychopathy, strong tendency towards DV and partial sadistic and sociopathic traits. She was not his first victim. July 22nd, 20204, a former girlfriend of Marx reported long-term violence that occurred up until April of 2016. After one visit to her parents, he deliberately ran over her foot.

During another car ride, he threatened to throw her from the vehicle. Another incident, he slammed the brake suddenly, causing her to strike her head on the dashboard. Despite overwhelming evidence, Mark's defense announced they would seek a not guilty verdict on grounds of insanity. He also requested provisional release, which the local courts denied. Mark appealed to the federal court arguing he needed to return to his daughters. Federal court upheld the denials, citing the cease. serious danger that he posed to them. In December of 2025, after a thorough investigation, prosecutors formally charged Mark with murder and disturbing the peace of the dead. This is essentially

what you might recognize as an abuse of a corpse charge here in the States. As of the date of this recording in February of 2026, he remains in custody with no trial date announced. Under Swiss law, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Examining Christina's case is important to know that Switzerland has some of the strictest privacy protections in criminal proceedings, and these rules apply to both victims and accused individuals. Even when cases are reported to the media, identities are usually with held, and the names are either redacted or replaced with pseudonyms. Christine's case was also reported under these very sane restrictions. She was initially named Ivana in local coverage with redacted photos. However, due to her

public profile in international recognition, her case gradually received wider attention. As a result, certain details were made public. These include some translated court excerpts from the criminal proceedings, as well as accounts attributed to individuals described as Christina's friends. All right, class settled down. Today's lesson is on the Arco Rewards app. Try to stay with me. The fundamentals are simple.

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Former Miss Switzerland, Nadine Vinsens, shared, I knew her well and I met him briefly. I am completely shocked and heartbroken. I would never have thought something like this would happen. She later commented under Christina's final post, My heart is broken. You were such a good and kind person. I will never forget our time in Los Angeles.

Rest in peace, beautiful. What happened is incredibly sad and shocking. My thoughts are especially with the children. Christina's children have been hit the hardest by this tragedy. They now must grow up without either parent and eventually face the devastating truth that their father killed their mother. Authorities place both daughters with Christina's relatives and provided them with psychological support.

According to a family friend, Christina's parents cannot find solace as there is no justice that can compensate for such a terrible loss. To add insult to injury, Mark's sister has since applied for custody of the girls, reportedly backed by Mark's millionaire father in his team of lawyers. Christina's parents are apparently being deemed too old to care for the girls long term, and their mental state has been called into question. According to a family friend, her parents are middle class,

and they can't win against his family's expense of lawyers. At the funeral, a psychologist gently explained to the children that their mother was asleep and would not return. Christina's grave features a frame photograph and dozens of flowers. Her daughters made a piece of art that was placed on the grave with writing in Serbian reading, Mama, we love you. After reviewing Christina's case, we talked a little bit about it and we have found that it reminds us quite a bit of the case of Abby Choi out of Hong Kong. Now, you might not know this, but just Drubi and I flew through Hong Kong just a couple of weeks ago, and I saw a giant Labubu.

And this is kind of what reminded us of Abby Choi. Yeah. I was like thinking, I'm like, you know, Abby absolutely flew through this airport. And it just, I started thinking a lot about her. Because this was the last case we did. This was the last case we did before we left on vacation. So it was fresh in our minds. Both were beautiful young women.

They were allegedly killed at the hands of those who they trusted. they both had to maintain a polished social media presence while in the throes of family violence. We discussed Abby's case at great length about two years ago, and there have been some updates since then. So if you're unfamiliar with her story, we'll give you a little bit of a recap right now. So Abby was born on July 15, 1994. She was the youngest of three daughters. She grew up in an affluent home after her mother and stepfather made a fortune operating construction and mining businesses in mainland China. When she was just 18 years old, Abby married a man by the name of Alex Kwong Kong Chi.

The couple had two children during their three-year marriage. This marriage ultimately ended in divorce. She later went on to have two more children with her new boyfriend, Chris. So by the time Abby was 28 years old, she'd become successful in her own right. She wasn't worrying about her parents' money. She had a net worth of $300 million Hong Kong dollars. She co-founded the Pau Miss charitable organization, which is a group of, dedicated to helping stray animals. Now, if you've ever vacationed in Asia, a lot of stray cats

and stuff like that. So she was dedicated to helping those. Now, outside of her philanthropy, Abby also continued to support her ex-husband's family. She purchased them a luxury home in Hong Kong's Cadori Hill District. Now, in our previous coverage, we stated that it was worth $4.7 million US dollars. However, this is a little bit of an update. New reports estimate that the home was actually worth $9.3 million. And a dispute involving that property ultimately led to Abby's murder. So Abby was reported missing on February 21st, 2023 after she failed to pick up her daughter from school. And just days later, her dismembered remains were discovered in a rental home in Taipo, which is about a 23 kilometer drive north of her home.

But it was much more disturbing than just finding a loved one dead. The home was equipped with an industrial meat slicer, an electric saw, and pots containing human flesh. Early reports claimed that Abby had been allegedly boiled into a soup by her ex-in-laws, which sparked rumors of them cannibalizing her because they couldn't recover all of Abby's body. In fact, she was laid to rest without her torso, her arms, or her hands. And as of the date of this recording, they still haven't found any of her body parts. I don't think they're ever going to. And that was definitely a parallel with Christina

because Mark put her in a blender and it's just terrible. It's gruesome and it's terrible. So here's some of the updates. Abby's ex-husband Alex, his brother and their father were arrested in charge with her murder. Her ex-mother-in-law was also charged with one count of perverting the course of justice for allegedly misleading the investigators. She has been sent sentenced to a year. and a half in jail. Now, the murder trial against Alex and his brother and the father is scheduled

to begin on September 21st, 2026, and it's expected to last 45 days in the high court. So we will definitely be keeping an eye out for updates about that. However, two accomplices have since been brought to justice, 44-year-old Henry Lamb Shun and 31-year-old Irene Pun-Hau-Yan, and I'm sure I'm butchering that. They were both convicted on June 17th, 2025 in Calhoun City Court on the charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. This was after the pair attempted to, and we cover this in our video, aid Alex in a very dramatic escape to Macau through their yacht. So according to reports, Henry and Irene were well aware of the fact that Alex was a suspect in a high profile murder case. And they were actively helping.

him evade police capture. This was not a secret. Now, despite this, they still help coordinate his yacht rental for $300,000 Hong Kong, which converts to about $38,393.53.155 U.S. as of the date of this recording. Ten days later, the pair were sentenced to six months in prison, although some reports claim that Irene remains free while she appeals her sentence. So do you think, think this is an adequate sentence for aiding and abetting someone who was wanted for a brutal murder, like this type of brutal murder? Yeah, this is. Let us know about that down there because that's, it's insane to me.

Like in some states in the U.S., just by doing that, you're, you're getting a murder charge too. Yes, yes. Rereading this case, it's really hard to believe that this even took place. It sounds like a completely made up story. And again, if you want to hear about all of that, it is not for the faint of heart. But we will have our video. I think I'll put it somewhere right in the middle here. If you want to click that, we can go over that.

But yes, later in the year, when the court case is done, we will do a full revisit to this case. But for now, click there to check it out.