Missing Austrian beauty influencer Stefanie Pieper has reportedly been found dead in a Slovenian forest after her ex-boyfriend allegedly led law enforcement to where he buried her remains.
Pieper, 31, who hails from Graz, had been missing for nearly a week when the gruesome discovery was made. Relatives and colleagues contacted authorities after she failed to show up for work last Sunday and couldn’t be reached, according to the Styrian State Police.
A subsequent investigation quickly determined that her unidentified ex-boyfriend, a 31-year-old Slovenian citizen living in Graz, “might be connected to her disappearance.”
On Monday, Slovenian police received a report that a car belonging to the man was found on fire in the parking lot of a casino in Šentilj, just over the border from Austria and roughly an hour drive south of Graz. Police promptly located the man “in the immediate vicinity of the burning vehicle” and took him into custody.
He was later extradited to Austria and questioned for several hours by police on Friday, but had so far failed to provide any information. A forensic examination of his vehicle, which he’s believed to have driven to Slovenia multiple times in the recent days, also “yielded no clues” as to where Pieper could be.
In an update on Saturday, authorities said the dayslong search had come to an end after the suspect eventually confessed, leading police to locate Pieper’s remains in Slovenia.
According to the country’s newspaper, Kronen Zeitung, the man led investigators into a forest where he buried her body in a suitcase after allegedly strangling her death.
In addition to the murder suspect, two other men from his family were also arrested this week in connection with the case, police said. The men, identified by the newspaper as his brother and stepfather, were remanded into custody due to risk of obstruction of justice.
The circumstances preceding Pieper’s death remain unclear. A joint press conference held by investigators from Austria and Slovenia, as well as the Graz Public Prosecutor’s Office, is scheduled for Sunday morning.
Pieper was a makeup artist and singer, with more than 47,000 followers on Instagram.
