Slovenia: serial killer commits suicide in prison

Photo: Slovenia: serial killer commits suicide in prison

The slayings, which took place over a period of several months in 1978, shocked the then-Yugoslavia. Metod Trobec burned the women's remains in a baker's oven in his home.

Trobec hanged himself with a noose he fashioned from a blanket in his cell at a prison in Dob pri Mirni in southeastern Slovenia.

Trobec was the last person to be sentenced to death in Yugoslavia, which broke apart in war in the 1990s. The newly independent ex-Yugoslav nations later abolished capital punishment.

On an appeal, Trobec's sentence was reduced to 20 years in prison, but he was ordered to serve another 15 years for the attempted murder an inmate, the AP reports.

Trobec was arrested in 1979 after police, who were investigating him for an attempted robbery, found the women's burnt remains during a search of his house.