Unidentified body found near Darłowo in search area for missing Koszalin woman

Body found in a forest near Darłowo

On 15 November 2026, in the morning hours, a passer-by walking a dog found a body in a wooded complex near Zakrzewo, a locality near Darłowo in West Pomerania. The discovery was made in the area that searchers had combed for more than two months for a 37-year-old woman from Koszalin who was reported missing on 30 August. Police and prosecutors are working at the site, and the area has been fenced off. RMF FM reported that DNA testing will be needed to confirm the identity of the remains.

Police spokeswoman Paulina Wiśniewska of the Koszalin city police press office confirmed the find to TVP.Info.

“I can confirm that a body was found in a forest complex. The remains were in an advanced state of decomposition.”

Identity still open

The condition of the remains is the main obstacle to identification. RMF FM reported that services could not yet establish even the sex of the body. Ewa Dziadczyk, spokeswoman for the Koszalin Regional Prosecutor's Office, confirmed that the body was that of a young woman but said she could not provide further information. Wiśniewska declined to link the body to the missing woman, saying she would not rely on circumstantial evidence.

Detective Krzysztof Rutkowski, whose office had been involved in the search, gave a different account to TVP.Info. He said the clothing found on the body allowed him to identify the woman.

“We know for certain it is her, based on identified clothing.”

Rutkowski also said that everything pointed to a suicide, and that the body had been covered during the intense summer and became visible once autumn thinned the tree cover. Police and prosecutors have not confirmed his identification.

The disappearance

The woman disappeared on 30 August after a music festival in Darłowo, which TVP.Info names as Zew Wydm, where she had been with her husband. After a quarrel between the couple, she walked off in an unknown direction, and she has not been in contact with her immediate family since. The last known person to see her was a taxi driver who drove her toward her car, which was parked in a Darłowo car park. According to Głos Koszaliński, the car had its door handles torn off, a damaged mirror and a wheel unscrewed. Her husband reportedly admitted causing the damage, saying it happened during the argument. After 22:00 she sent him a final text message, according to the same outlet.

The investigation

In mid-September a phone belonging to the woman was found, and a few days later a backpack containing her keys and personal belongings was discovered. The Koszalin Regional Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into the disappearance, and investigators did not rule out any scenario, including a crime. An investigation team from Koszalin is working at the site, which remains fenced off. Identification of the body is still pending, and RMF FM reported that DNA testing will be needed to establish it.