A Swiss man who killed his ex-model wife decapitated her and cut her womb out before using a blender to ‘puree’ some of her body parts, court documents exclusively obtained by MailOnline have revealed.
The 41-year-old man, who was named in local media by the pseudonym of Thomas due to Swiss privacy laws, admitted to having killed Kristina Joksimovic, whose ravaged body was found in their home in Binningen, near Basel, on February 13.
The autopsy report shows that the former Miss Switzerland contestant was decapitated when her husband dismembered her body with a jigsaw, a knife and garden shears.
He also ‘carefully removed’ Kristina’s womb, which was the only organ cut out of her torso, and this ‘deliberate mutilation or ritualised degradation of the body’ is believed to indicate that Thomas has a mental disorder, according to the court.
Some of his wife’s body parts were forced into a powerful industrial blender, in which he ‘pureed’ them, as well as dissolving some in a chemical solution.
Investigators found that while cutting up the mother-of-two’s body, Thomas played YouTube videos on his phone.
The 41-year-old man, who was named in local media by the pseudonym of Thomas due to Swiss privacy laws, admitted to having killed Kristina Joksimovic (pictured), whose ravaged body was found in their home in Binningen, near Basel, on February 13
On social media, the couple often shared loved-up snaps together (like above
The autopsy report shows that the former Miss Switzerland contestant was decapitated when her husband dismembered her body with a jigsaw, a knife and garden shears
Thomas also ‘carefully removed’ Kristina’s womb, which was the only organ cut out of her torso, and this ‘deliberate mutilation or ritualised degradation of the body’ is believed to indicate that Thomas has a mental disorder, according to the court
Kristina and her husband are pictured above during their wedding day in August 2017
The autopsy found that Kristina’s cause of death was strangulation, with her neck showing a ‘reddish throttle mark’.
Her body showed signs of blunt force trauma suffered prior to her death, with Kristina having cuts on her cheek, under her eyebrow and nose as well as several bruises on her right lower leg, foot, shoulder blades and on the back of her head.
A closer examination of Kristina’s head revealed wounds indicating that some of her hair was ripped out.
The experts who analysed the dismemberment of her body said Thomas used a jigsaw, a knife and a pair of garden shears to dismember Kristina, before either throwing ‘various body parts’ into an industrial blender or dissolving them in a chemical solution.
Investigators found ‘a large number’ of skin flaps, ‘some with attached muscles’ as well as ‘a large number of pieces of muscle, some with attached pieces of bone’.
The autopsy revealed that before Thomas dismembered her, he broke Kristina’s hip joints out of their sockets and went on to disarticulation – which is the removal of a bone from its joint, like an amputation – with her left upper arm, forearms and right lower leg.
He then ‘roughly severed’ Kristina’s upper spine to decapitate her and further split her torso in half above her pelvis.
Thomas also cut out her womb, which was the only organ that was completely removed.
While dismembering the body, he was playing YouTube videos on his phone, investigators said.
The medical experts assumed in the autopsy report that the ‘disposal’ of Kristina’s body was the goal of Thomas’ actions, which included him hiding her phone on a delivery truck.
The court also noted that Thomas, whose name was redacted in the judgement due to strict Swiss privacy laws, had refused to give them access to his phone, which investigators say is encrypted and could hide more evidence.
The Swiss federal court said that therefore ‘necessary environmental investigations’ have not yet been carried out, which it said ‘means that there is still a considerable risk of collusion’.
Describing what happened before the killing, Thomas said that the couple had a ‘positive’ conversation before Kristina ‘suddenly attacked him with a knife’.
He had previously claimed that he ‘found his wife dead’ by the stairs in their family home, but later said that he strangled her in self-defence against the alleged knife attack.
Thomas, 41, (pictured right) admitted to killing and dismembering his wife Kristina Joksimovic, 38
Model Kristina was found dead in her home in Binningen, near Basel, Switzerland, in February, with an autopsy revealing that she was strangled before being dismembered in the laundry room with a jigsaw, knife and garden shears
His behaviour on the day of Kristina’s killing indicates that Thomas is ‘extremely violent, particularly towards his respective life partners, sometimes with sadistic-sociopathic traits’
The ravaged body of model Kristina Joksimovic, 38, was found in her home in Binningen, near Basel in February
Pictures from their wedding day show Thomas adoringly looking at his wife, who he went to kill and dismember a few years later
He admitted that he dismembered her in their laundry room ‘in a panic’ and ‘pureed’ her with an industrial blender that he ‘coincidentally had in his basement’.
But the court said the autopsy report clearly contradicted Thomas’ self-defence and panic reaction claims, as his ‘planned and systematic approach over several hours in dismembering and attempting to dispose of the body using special tools and chemicals, and in destroying and manipulating traces (injuries on the victim’s body)’ went against them.
The ‘signs of deliberate mutilation or ritualised degradation of the body’, in part referring to the ‘careful removal’ of Kristina’s womb, were also indicating that Thomas possibly had a mental disorder, the court added.
His behaviour on the day of Kristina’s killing indicates that Thomas is ‘extremely violent, particularly towards his respective life partners, sometimes with sadistic-sociopathic traits’.
It also revealed ‘a low level of frustration tolerance and poor impulse control’ and an ‘increasing escalation of violence’, according to the court.
The court heard how Thomas’ former partner told the prosecutor that he ‘used massive violence against her on several occasions’ until April 2016, just a little over a year before he married Kristina.
She said that he drove over her foot with his car during one his ‘frequent fits of rage’ after the couple visited her parents and also threatened to throw her out of the vehicle on the drive home.
Another time during a car ride, she said he slammed on the breaks, causing her to smash her head on the dashboard.
Thomas, who used to live in Bern at the time, also allegedly grabbed his then partner by the neck and pushed her against the wall.
She said he sometimes ‘lost control’ during arguments, which caused him to ‘hit or strangle’ her.
The woman also claims that she knew that there had been ‘problems’ like ‘violence or sexual matters’ in his previous relationships.
Thomas apparently continued this pattern of violence in his relationship with Kristina, with police being called out to the couple’s home on July 14, 2023.
Kristina and her husband have two daughters (pictured above during a beach holiday in August 2023)
Social media pictures show various trips the couple went on together
The couple posed for loved-up pictures on their wedding day in August 2017
Pictures from the incident reportedly showed strangulation marks on Kristina’s neck, which was corroborated by witness statements in the police report.
The pair are said to have had a happy relationship until Thomas, who is the son of a well-known lawyer from Bern, launched his own business consulting firm in 2022.
Thomas’ temperament quickly changed and the couple’s picture-perfect relationship started to crumble, according to the source close to Kristina.
A source close to Kristina has revealed that a possible motive for the killing was the mother-of-two planning to leave her businessman partner.
‘She wanted to break up, but was afraid of him,’ the source told 20 Minuten.
The heinous attack came just weeks after Kristina posted images of an idyllic ‘couple’s getaway’ they’d shared to Lake Lucerne on social media.
Meanwhile, the partner of one of Kristina’s friends told Blick that the relationship had been ‘in crisis for months’, adding that the police was called to their house over reports of physical violence before.
Thomas claimed that he felt like he was getting into a ‘tunnel’ due to his ‘fear of losing [his] children, house and company’.
He claimed this ‘fear’ stressed him out to the extent that he ‘did not give himself time to reflect on his decisions and question his actions, while his control mechanisms were missing due to shock’.
The lower court found that Thomas was ‘obviously stuck in the completely unrealistic idea of living again in the near future with his daughters, whose mother he admittedly killed and dismembered, at his previous place of residence.’
The Basel court stated that there are ‘concrete indications of a mental illness or a significant psychopathological personality disorder’ in Thomas’ case, paired with a ‘high level of criminal energy, lack of empathy and cold-bloodedness after killing his wife’.
A psychiatric-forensic expert consulted by the head of the proceedings said in July that further examinations were required to make a ‘sufficiently substantiated’ assessment of Thomas.
Kristina shared photos with her children, taken by her husband on Instagram before her death
Kristina, the mother of their two children, was allegedly killed because she had previously threatened her husband with a knife
Kristina was reportedly strangled several times before the day of her killing
Investigators have said Thomas, a businessman (pictured above driving a Tesla), showed a ‘conspicuously high level of criminal energy’ in their assessment
Thomas had an appeal for release from custody rejected on Wednesday by the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne – after already having his request denied at the lower court – after an ongoing investigation concluded there were ‘concrete indications of mental illness’ underlying the case.
Thomas had asked to either be released from custody pending trial against ‘payment of appropriate bail and an order to block documents’, even offering to be placed
He also requested to be placed under electronically monitored house arrest as well as paying a bail if he was released.
Thomas, a Swiss national from a wealthy family, was reportedly arrested shortly after Kristina’s remains were found by a ‘third party’ in the evening of February 13.
He and Kristina bought a semi-detached house in the affluent Binninger district just outside of Basel, where streets are lined with mansions and upscale newbuilds overlooking the valley.
The couple, who got married in August 2017, reportedly lived in their spacious home with their two young daughters and Kristina’s mother.
Just four weeks before she was killed, Kristina had posted pictures of a ‘couple’s getaway’ on her Instagram account, showing the snowy landscape from the window of a luxurious hotel above Lake Lucerne.
‘To me, they seemed like the perfect family,’ a friend told Swiss outlet Blick.
Kristina, a Binningen native with Serbian roots, had reportedly switched from modelling to become a catwalk coach, inspiring the next generation of Miss Switzerland candidates.
She also trained businesswomen to walk confidently in their professional or private lives.
In her previous career, she had won the Miss Northwest Switzerland pageant in 2003 and went on to be a finalist in the 2007 Miss Switzerland competition.
The same year, she founded a coaching and consulting agency for aspiring models while still working full-time in IT recruitment.
The mother-of-two married her husband in 2017 and shared posts with their children
The model’s husband admitted to having killed his wife, claiming self defence, per local media
Kristina and her husband had two young daughters together
Kristina’s husband is pictured above during a skiing trip
Many Swiss celebrities and fellow Miss Switzerland contestants shared their shock over Kristina’s death back in February.
Lorena Santen, who was crowned Miss Switzerland in 2023 and was one of Kristina’s catwalk students, said: ‘We will miss you so much.’
Former Miss Switzerland Christa Rigozzi, who won the title in 2006, told 20 Minuten in February: ‘It’s terrible. I’m really shocked. I’m thinking of her two daughters. She was such a beautiful and kind-hearted woman.’
Swiss actress and TV presenter Miriam Rickli, who was in the Miss Switzerland final alongside Kristina, said: ‘I’m just speechless.’
And Nadine Vinzens, Miss Switzerland 2002, told Nau.ch: ‘I knew her well and I met him briefly. I am totally shocked and heartbroken.
‘We talked to each other more and more often. She even came to visit me when I was still living in America. Never in my life would I have thought that something like this would happen.
‘She always made a happy impression on me. I would never have thought that her husband would do something like that.’
She added in a comment under Kristina’s last social media post: ‘I’m so heartbroken. You were such a good and nice person. I will not ever forget the time in LA with you. RIP my beauty.’
‘It is very, very sad and shocking what has happened. I am also so incredibly sorry for the children,’ Swiss model and former Miss Switzerland Dominique Rinderknecht told Nau.
Kristina regularly shared romantic snaps with her husband with her social media followers
Kristina, a Binningen native with Serbian roots, took part in a number of pageants in the 2000s
Kristina trained Miss Switzerland candidates to follow in her footsteps
Kristina had once won the Miss Northwest Switzerland pageant and went on to be a finalist in the 2008 national competition
In the lead up to her 2013 Miss Universe competition, Rinderknecht received catwalk training from Kristina and shared their progress on Youtube, garnering half a million clicks.
Model Andrea Brotschi, who also participated in a Swiss pageant, also paid tribute to her friend: ‘I am so sad and shocked. We just saw each other.
‘You were such a good-hearted, kind, intelligent and great human. Why? Kris thank you for everything.’
Frida Hodel, who was the Swiss Bachelorette in 2015, also paid tribute to Kristina, writing: ‘We miss you. I will never forget you. Rest in peace.’
Another Bachelorette, Eli Simic, who participated in the show in 2017 to find a partner, commented on Kristina’s last Instagram post in Serbian: ‘Rest in peace Kiki. No words…’
‘Kristina. I can’t believe it!’ international make-up artist Selina Beutler wrote.