Michelina Lewandowska and Marcin Kasprzak met in their native Poland in 2005. A year later, Marcin proposed and the couple moved to England. Once Michelina fell pregnant in 2008, the relationship began to go south. They called off the engagement but they remained together, and Michelina continued to wear her ring hoping things would work out.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. By 2011 things had only gotten worse; it was clear that Marcin was not interested in mending their broken relationship. Michelina told him that she was unhappy and wanted to move back home to Poland with their 3-year-old son Jakub. Marcin decided he would rather his son grow up without a mother.
On Saturday, May 28, 2011, Marcin invited Michelina to go shopping with him and his friend, 18-year-old Patryk Borys. Michelina was surprised; Marcin rarely wanted to spend time with her. Nevertheless, she was excited and thought maybe things were finally turning around. Michelina hurried off to the bathroom and began putting on her makeup.
Luckily, Jakub was spending the day with his grandmother (Marcin’s mother) and was not able to witness what happened next.
As Michelina exited the bathroom, she found both Marcin and Patryk staring back at her, eerie smiles were plastered across their faces. Marcin grabbed Michelina’s arm and said: I want to show you something.
He pulled a 300,000-volt stun gun from his pocket, pressed it up against Michelina’s neck, and tasered her.
As Michelina fell to the floor, agonizing pain shot through her entire body. Marcin, a 224-pound bodybuilder, put his knees on her chest and held her down. Michelina asked Marcin if he was going to kill her. He responded, “Don’t be scared.”
Marcin yelled at Patryk, “Go get the packing tape!”
They gagged Michelina, bound her wrists and ankles, and taped her mouth shut. They left her tied up, slumped against a wall, and tasered her again.
A few hours later, Marcin and Patryk dragged Michelina into the kitchen and put her inside a cardboard box. As Marcin began to tape the box shut with her inside, she screamed for him to let her go. Marcin knelt, laughed, and coldly said, “I’ve hated you for four years, you’ll never see your son again.”
Marcin and Patryk put the cardboard box in the trunk of Patryk’s car and drove to a wooded area near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. They placed the box into a shallow pre-dug grave and to ensure Michelina wouldn’t be able to escape, an 88-pound log was placed on top of her.
As she lay in the box, terrified and in agony, Michelina heard the sound of dirt being shoveled on top of her. She began praying. After a while, the noises stopped. Michelina wasn’t sure if Marcin and Patryk had left, but she was sure of one thing: she had to escape.
Fearing she would suffocate, Michelina began taking shallow breaths and fought to keep herself conscious, “The thing that saved me was thinking of my little boy, Jakub. If I died I would never see him again and he would be left without his mother,” Michelina said.
As Michelina looked down at her bound wrists, she realized she had something that could save her life — her diamond engagement ring.
Using the sharp edges of the ring, Michelina cut the tape off her mouth, legs, and wrists. She slashed away at the cardboard until she was able to make a hole. She put her fingers through the hole and tore away at the cardboard, but all she felt was soil.
The soil began to collapse into the box, covering Michelina’s face, hair, and clothes. She screamed for help, but no one was around to hear her. She was weak and her entire body throbbed with pain, but she knew if she wanted to see her son again, she had to keep fighting. She told herself: keep going.
Michelina continued to slash, kick, and tear at the box until she was able to stick an arm out, then her head, and then, her entire body.
After an hour inside the box, Michelina miraculously freed herself. Not only had she survived the unthinkable, but she used the very ring Marcin had given her, to do so.
Michelina ran out into the road and caught the attention of a motorist who phoned the police. 15 minutes later, authorities arrived and Michelina showed them the cardboard box in which she was buried alive.
Marcin received the shock of his life when authorities knocked on his door and told him he was under arrest for kidnapping and attempted murder.
While searching the home he shared with Michelina, authorities found several different chemicals and instructions for homemade explosives.
Authorities later discovered that after burying Michelina alive, the two men withdrew £500 from an ATM using her bank card.
Marcin told the court he only intended to scare Michelina rather than kill her. This defense, was, of course, quickly dismissed.
Marcin was convicted of attempted murder and kidnapping, and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Patryk was cleared of attempted murder but he was found guilty of kidnapping. He was sentenced to 4.5 years.
“He wanted me dead and planned to kill me in the most horrific way imaginable, but I was not going to let him succeed and using my last bit of strength, I kicked and clawed my way out of that grave. Now he’s the one who is imprisoned and I hope he rots in there.” — Michelina Lewandowska