Wojtuś just wanted to learn how to shoot. He didn't think he would fall into the hands of a beast.

July 4, 1988. That was the last time Wojtek Pryczek's mother saw him. Wojtek loved the water. It was vacation time, it was nice, the weather was great. There was no reason for him not to go to the reservoir. On hot days there were always lots of kids there. Trynkiewicz knew that too. He lured Wojtek to his place. He had a feeling that stories about shooting with an air rifle would work on a teenage boy who was curious about the world and wanted adventure and fun.

He struck up a conversation and began to familiarize himself with his victim. In his testimony, he later said: "I learned from him that his name was Wojtek. He told me that his parents were divorced. He said that he preferred his father. That he had an older brother."

Trynkiewicz enticed him with a proposal to enroll in the shooting section. But first he wanted to teach the boy how to shoot. He said he had an air rifle at home. Wojtuś went with him.

In the apartment, Trynkiewicz made him tea and gave him a squared card, on which the boy signed. He was already implementing his monstrous plan. He decided that it would be a good idea to write his mother a card so that she wouldn't worry about his absence. Wojtuś did so. "Dear mommy. I'm in a safe place from the ad and I'm earning some money. I'll be back soon. Wojtek," he wrote on the postcard.

An hour later he was dead. Trynkiewicz claimed during the investigation that he did not remember how he killed him. He did not remember the blood, so he thought he had strangled Wojtek. He carried the body out of the apartment. Wojtek was tall for his age, but slim. The murderer easily wrapped him in a blanket, tied him with string and put him in a cardboard box. On a motorcycle, without turning on the engine, at night he transported the body towards the Bugaj reservoir. He abandoned the body in the forest. "I went back home. I sat in the armchair until morning," he told investigators.

He sat and plotted how to hide the murder of a child. First, he remembered that he had a postcard written by Wojtuś. However, he decided that it was not credible enough. Three days later, he cut out letters from a newspaper and made a letter to Wojtek's mother. He wrote that the boy was alive and that money was needed. He demanded 50 thousand zlotys for the child. In addition to the anonymous letter, he put a lock of Wojtek's hair in the envelope. "On the day of the murder, I thought that I would need the hair. That's why I cut it off. I stuck the address written by Wojtek on the envelope," he said during interrogation.

Zofia Pryczek, in an interview she gave to a "Fakt" reporter only a quarter of a century after her son's murder, said that Wojtek must have met Trynkiewicz before. She once found a fountain pen in his possession. He wouldn't say where he got it from. He made up something about borrowing it from a friend. It was only later that it occurred to her that it might be from Trynkiewicz. She recalled that Wojtuś was very sociable and trusting. According to his mother, this faith in people was his downfall.

The very next day she knew something bad had happened. Wojtek was on his own. He was supposed to go home, and Mrs. Zofia was supposed to go to work from her allotment. During the day, he would come to see her mother, to the hospital where she worked. He spent a lot of time in front of the hospital, playing, and she would look at him through the window. That day he didn’t come. When he didn’t come home, the woman reported the case to the police. She looked for him herself. Everywhere. All night and day. With her brother and older son. First, a card from Wojtuś arrived. Then an anonymous letter with hair. She still had hope. When the alleged kidnapper demanded 50 thousand zlotys in ransom, she knew she wouldn’t be able to pay that much. She told the officers everything. They advised her to put cut-up newspapers in an envelope, and they set up a place in the forest where she was supposed to take it. But no one came for the ransom. As she says, Trynkiewicz was watching her, driving by her allotment. He wanted to know what she was doing, whether the police were taking any action.

Wojtek's death came to light in another triple murder that shook Piotrków Trybunalski for good. Three boys: 11-year-old Tomek Łojek, 12-year-old Krzyś Kaczmarek and 12-year-old Artur Kawczyński, who had disappeared just like Wojtuś before, were found dead in the forest. Their bodies were piled on a bonfire. In August 1988, they were found by a mushroom picker. Another month had to pass before Trynkiewicz confessed to killing Wojtek. He described exactly where the boy's body was, but he did not want to be present when the body was found.

For his crimes, Mariusz Trynkiewicz was sentenced to death, but it was abolished and changed to 25 years in prison. After serving his sentence, Trynkiewicz was sent to a center for beasts in Gostynin. He was convicted again — for possession of child pornography. The Satan of Piotrków died in January 2025. He was buried in secret, the funeral was probably organized by his wife, whom he married behind bars. The place of his burial remains a mystery.

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Trynkiewicz hunted the boy.

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