'Ice Killer' who chopped husband and lover up with chainsaw escapes jail

An Austrian court has sentenced a woman dubbed the "ice killer" who cut up her husband and lover with a chain saw and hid them in the cellar of her ice cream parlour to life in a mental institution.

Telegraph.co.uk

November 23, 2012

Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala, 34, who has joint Spanish-Mexican citizenship, was sentenced to life in a secure mental institution for killing her ex-husband in 2008 and two years later her new partner.

"I can't say anything other than that I am sorry that I took Holger and Manfred's lives," a tearful Carranza said in a short final statement to the court in Vienna after a trial lasting four days.

Chief prosecutor Petra Freh said the killings were "depraved and horrific," calling her a "highly dangerous woman ready to do anything."

Carranza shot Holger Holz and Manfred Hinterberger, dismembered them and then concealed the parts in lumps of concrete that she then stashed in the cellar of her "Schleckeria" shop in the Austrian capital.

The grisly remains were discovered by chance during maintenance work in June 2011. After going on the run to Italy, Carranza was captured several days afterwards and later extradited.

The trial attracted considerable media attention and on Wednesday involved a PowerPoint presentation by a court-appointed medical expert of photos of the sawn-off heads and other body parts of the victims.

Carranza made a full confession to the court in a long and detailed testimony on Monday. She portrayed Holz as a violent and lazy bully, and said that in her relationship to Hinterberger, an ice cream machinery salesman, she felt like she was "in a prison."

When arrested, Carranza was two-months pregnant by another man, whom she married in prison in March this year. The baby boy was born in January but was immediately taken away from her and is now reportedly being looked after by her parents in Barcelona, Spain.

"He is totally different. He is very gentle, the opposite of macho," Carranza said of her new husband. Reports said she intends to apply to be transferred to a prison in Spain in order to be able to see her son regularly.

Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala Pleads Guilty To Killing Ex-Husband, Boyfriend In Ice Cream Parlor

By Hilary Hanson - HuffingtonPost.com

November 20, 2012

A woman dubbed the "Ice Cream Killer" and described as "singularly cold-blooded" by prosecutors has pleaded guilty to the murders of two lovers.

Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala, 34, confessed in an Austrian court yesterday to killing her ex-husband and hiding his body parts in the storage cellar of her ice cream parlor in Vienna, then doing the same thing to her boyfriend two years later, News.com.au reports.

Carranza admitted that when Holger Holz refused to move out after their 2008 divorce, she shot him in the head three times while he was working at his computer. She hacked his body apart with a chain saw and embedded the parts in cement chunks, according the AFP.

In 2010, Carranza was dating a new man, Manfred Hinterberger, and the two got into a drunken argument one November night. Carranza believed he was cheating on her, though there has been no proof to substantiate her suspicion.

"He turned his face to the wall and started snoring," Carranza told the court. "I was so angry. I had the gun under the mattress. I took it out, loaded and shot."

She killed him with the same gun she had used to murder Holz, then disposed of his body in the same way.

Maintenance workers stumbled upon the remains of both men in July 2011. Carranza fled to Italy, but was captured and extradited.

When she was arrested, she was pregnant with the child of a third man. The two married in prison in March 2011.

Carranza says her new husband is "totally different" from her previous flames, the Global Post reported. "He is very gentle, the opposite of macho," she said. "He would not bring me into such a situation."

She gave birth in January, but the boy was placed in the care of Carranza's parents.

Carranza has been diagnosed with "serious mental and psychological abnormalities," the Metro reports, but she was nonetheless ruled fit to stand trial.

Court psychologist Adelheid Kastner has predicted that Carranza has a "one in three" chance of committing another murder if she is set free, according to the Vienna Times.

Even though Carranza has already pleaded guilty under Austrian law the court must still examine all evidence to decide whether or not to accept the guilty plea. A verdict is expected on Thursday.

Woman on trial for killing and sawing up husband and lover

By Simon Sturdee (AFP) - inSing.com

November 20, 2012

(VIENNA) A woman dubbed the "ice killer" by the Austrian media confessed in court on Monday to murdering two men and setting their sawn-up body parts in cement in the cellar of her ice-cream parlour.

At times breaking into tears, Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala, who has joint Spanish-Mexican citizenship, told the hearing in Vienna how she shot and sliced up with a chain saw her ex-husband in 2008 and then in 2010, her new partner.

At first freezing the body parts in the apartment that also served as a store room for the ice-cream parlour, she concealed them in chunks of concrete that she mixed up in the cellar of her "Schleckeria" shop in the Austrian capital.

The grisly remains were discovered by chance during maintenance work in June 2011. After going on the run to Italy, Carranza was captured several days afterwards and later extradited.

Carranza shot ex-husband Holger Holz – who she said was violent, lazy and a bully who refused to move out after their divorce – at close range with a .22-calibre Beretta pistol three times in the head as he worked on his computer.

"I never thought I would be able to go through with it," Carranza, wearing a grey dress and glasses, told the packed courtroom. "It was 3pm. There were children outside, it was nice weather, someone must have heard.

"I thought the police would come. Then my mobile phone rang. It was the ice-cream parlour, saying they needed me to come over."

After several failed attempts to dispose of the corpse, including the "crazy idea" of setting fire to it, Carranza finally decided to resort to a chain saw.

"I cleaned and cleaned in the days afterwards," she told the court.

But her new relationship with Manfred Hinterberger, an ice-cream salesman some 20 years her senior, quickly deteriorated until she felt "like in a prison ... like my head was in a plastic bag".

Before killing him, she took shooting lessons as well as a course in mixing concrete at a local hardware store. She shot him as he slept after a drunken argument in November 2010 with the same Beretta.

"He turned his face to the wall and started snoring... I was so angry. I had the gun under the mattress. I took it out, loaded and shot," Carranza told the court.

In the morning she "asked him to forgive me for what I had done". She then proceeded to dispose of the body.

When arrested, Carranza was two-months pregnant by another man, whom she married in prison in March this year. The baby was born in January but the boy, called Roland after the father, was immediately taken away from her and is now reportedly being looked after by her parents in Barcelona.

"He is totally different. He is very gentle, the opposite of macho," Carranza said of her new husband. "He would not bring me into such a situation."

"This woman has two faces," prosecutor Petra Freh told the packed courtroom on Monday. "She will try to play here the part of someone well-behaved, who would never do something like this.

"My task is to show you her other side... That she is a singularly cold-blooded and unscrupulous killer," Freh said. "Do not be fooled."

A psychiatric report commissioned by the court said that Carranza, now in a unit for the "mentally abnormal", was dangerous and was like a "princess ... who just wants to be 'rescued' by a man".

The trial was scheduled to last several days, with around 50 witnesses and seven experts due to testify.