Twenty-two-year-old Anna Kembrowska, originally from Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Poland, and twenty-five-year-old Robert Odżga, from Międzylesie, were students at the Agricultural Academy in Wrocław (now the University of Environmental and Life Sciences). Anna was in her third year studying environmental protection, while Robert had completed his fourth year in geodesy and cartography.
The pair shared a profound love for nature, mountains, and adventure. Summers were sacred to them, filled with trips to the Mazury lakes or multi-day hikes. They were described by friends as inseparable, planning a future together, possibly marriage. In August 1997, Anna had arrived in the Kłodzko Valley area, where Robert’s family lived in Międzylesie. She was supposed to join a scientific camp, but the couple decided to spend time hiking first.
Around ten a.m. on August 17th, 1997, Anna called her mother from Duszniki-Zdrój to say she and Robert were heading toward Karłów along the blue trail. The route took them through scenic parts of the Table Mountains National Park, including toward the prominent rock formation known as Narożnik.
They never reached their destination.
Around five p.m., near the Narożnik area on the blue trail, three gunshots rang out. Witnesses later recalled hearing them along with a woman’s desperate scream. Robert was shot twice in the head (one in the temple exiting through the eye socket, another directly in the forehead). Anna received a single shot between the eyes. Her body lay about fifty to sixty feet away from Robert’s, suggesting she may have tried to flee after he was killed.
The killings were carried out at close range with a pistol later identified as likely a Walther PPK (or similar Czech-made “cezetka” variant), a compact firearm from the pre-World War I era still in circulation decades later. The scene bore hallmarks of a professional execution rather than a random crime.
The couple’s disappearance triggered concern. Ten days later, on August 27th, 1997, their bodies were found by other hikers near Narożnik. The prolonged exposure in summer heat complicated the autopsy, but forensic experts confirmed the time of death as August 17th around five p.m.
Police launched a major operation codenamed “Narożnik” under the Wałbrzych Provincial Police Command. Investigators noted several unusual details. For example, the victims’ trousers were pulled down to the knees, possibly to stage a sexual assault or robbery. No sexual assault was confirmed, however.
Personal items were missing or disturbed, though no clear motive of theft emerged. The precision of the shots and the choice of weapon pointed away from an impulsive act.
The case drew massive media attention and public speculation. Theories ranged from a random attack by a deranged individual to targeted killing. Some pointed to the presence of European neo-Nazi groups holding survival camps in the area around the tenth anniversary of Rudolf Hess’s death (though no direct link was proven). Others explored personal grudges, drug-related angles, or even mistaken identity.
Despite thousands of interviews, forensic analysis, and leads, the perpetrator was never identified. The case went cold but was periodically reopened.
In 2017, a pistol potentially matching the murder weapon was recovered in the Kłodzko area. And in the early 2020s, renewed interest from cold-case units led to reports of recovered items like Anna’s camera and diary—though these claims sometimes appeared sensationalized in media.
A small memorial chapel now stands near Narożnik, erected around 2020, where hikers and locals leave flowers and remember the couple. As of this writing in 2026, no charges or arrests have been made in the double homicide, and the motive remains unknown.
Crime Immemorial 