Catalin Ciolpan: Killer on the Roads

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The highways of post-communist Romania held a deadly secret. For years, a predator lurked along rural roads, targeting women who were simply trying to get from one place to another. They called him "The Husi Monster" - a nameless, faceless threat that haunted the countryside around the town of Husi.

We journey back to the early 2000s, when Romania was still finding its footing after decades under communist rule. Cars were scarce, public transport unreliable, and hitchhiking wasn't just common – it was necessary. Every town had designated spots where travelers would wait with an extended hand, hoping for a ride. It was against this backdrop that women began to disappear.

Marcela, Safta, Maria, Mioara – mothers, daughters, workers – all vanished while hitchhiking. Their bodies, when found, revealed little about their killer. The investigations moved slowly, hampered by limited resources and experience with serial crimes. For seventeen years, the murders went unsolved while families waited for answers that never came.

The breakthrough arrived from an unexpected source. In 2017, German authorities arrested Romanian truck driver Cătălin Ciolpan for similar murders in Austria and Germany. As suspect #4,334 in a massive European investigation, his capture finally cast light on the forgotten Romanian cases. The evidence was compelling – he grew up near where the crimes occurred, drove through the region for work, and once owned a car matching witness descriptions.

Today, Ciolpan serves a life sentence in Germany, while in Romania, justice remains incomplete. This episode explores how ordinary actions became deadly in the shadow of a predator, and how some monsters hide in plain sight until someone connects the dots. Join us as we unravel the twisted path that finally led to the Hush Monster.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Clue Trail , where true stories unravel one
step at a time, from crimes andcolds to survival stories and
the downright strange.
We follow the twists that leadto the truth.
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(00:30):
episodes and early access.
Just search Clue Trail or hitthe link in the show notes.
And don't forget to follow,rate or review the podcast.
It helps more curious mindsfind us.
Now let's dive into today's case.
Today we're heading to EasternEurope, in Romania, where for

(01:19):
years a series of unsolvedcrimes haunted rural areas and
highways.
Women were disappearing, oftenwhile hitchhiking, and the cases
seemed to fade without answers.
At that time, no one knew whowas responsible and locals began

(01:43):
to refer to the unknown killerwith a chilling nickname the
Hush Monster.
So who was behind these crimes?
What connected the victims andhow did the suspect stay off the
radar for so long?
This is the story of CatalineCholpan.

(02:06):
Before we trace the crimes,it's important to understand the
setting, because what mightseem risky today, especially for
women travelling alone, backthen was considered normal.

(02:31):
Every victim in this case washitchhiking, but in early 2000s
Romania this wasn't unusual.
It was a common way to get fromplace to place.
But in early 2000s Romania.
This wasn't unusual.
It was a common way to get fromplace to place.
And to understand why we needto look back.

(02:56):
Until 1989, romania was underthe communist regime.
Crime wasn't acknowledged well,at least not officially.
The state controlled the mediatightly and any incidents of
violence were often downplayedor just hidden.
The idea of a serial killerwasn't just rare, it was

(03:22):
practically unheard of.
Where in countries like the US,names like Bundy and Gacy were
already part of the culturalconversation.
In Romania, the concept ofsomeone killing multiple
strangers over time wasn'twidely understood.

(03:44):
That didn't mean people wereunaware of danger.
They were, but the threatspeople were used to looked
different.
More political than personal.
Fear came in the form ofsurveillance, censorship and

(04:06):
rationing, not strangers on theroadside.
After the regime fell, romaniaentered a long and difficult
period of transition.
Infrastructure was unstable andin many areas public transport

(04:38):
between towns was limited orunreliable, and private cars
were a luxury for most families.
So hitchhiking, also knownlocally as Yamanene, became an
informal transport network.
Drivers would pick uppassengers, often for a small
payment, and it was widelyaccepted.
Every town had known pickupspots where people waited by the

(05:00):
roadside, stuck out a hand andsomeone would stop.
It was just the norm for thatperiod.
And that's what makes whathappened next all the more
unsettling, because these womenweren't doing anything out of
the ordinary.
They were simply trying to getfrom one place to another.

(05:41):
Our story begins in thenortheastern town of Hush on
11th of October 2000.
Marcella Tomosei, a 29-year-oldnurse and mother of two, was
heading out to take part in alabour strike.
You see, healthcare workerswere protesting low wages, and

(06:04):
Marcella planned to join them.
Her husband walked her to theusual hitchhiking spot and that
was the last time he saw her.
The very next day her body wasfound near the ruins of an old
brick factory in Berlad, a quiet, isolated area known to locals

(06:30):
as a former gathering place forsex workers.
She had been strangled, mostlikely with her own scarf, and
all her jewelry were missing.
There were no signs of sexualassault, no defensive injuries,
just a single visible blow tothe head, likely from being

(06:54):
struck against the car.
Police at the time believed shewas killed elsewhere, then left
at that location.
The investigation moved slowalmost from the get-go, and at
first they believed this to bean isolated event, but
unfortunately, soon they wouldlearn this was not the case Just

(07:22):
six weeks later.
Whilst Marcella's investigationwas ongoing, another case came
to light.
On 30th of November, two menwere collecting firewood near
the village of Mitok.
It was an uneventful winterafternoon.

(07:43):
Just walking around collectingwood, but that was until hidden
underneath leaves and branches,they came across a pile of
clothing, jeans, underwear,jogging bottoms.
Then, amongst the clothes anddebris, they found a skull.

(08:03):
The victim was later identifiedas 30-year-old Safta Chubotaru,
a mother of two from Vinderei.
Safta's story is one ofresilience.
After losing her mining job inHunedoara, she and her husband

(08:24):
moved back home.
The stress of losing everythingeventually led to divorce and
her former husband passed awaysoon after.
But, determined to support herchildren, safta found work
abroad, in Turkey, and it was on10th of October, just one day

(08:45):
before Marcella Tomozei vanished.
When Safta travelled to Burladto visit her brother, she
planned to go to Vaslui tofinalize work plans and collect
some funds, but, like Marcella,she never arrived.

(09:06):
During the forest search afterSafta's discovery, one of the
firewood collectors made aconfession.
He had seen the bones earlier,actually some weeks ago, but
didn't report them.
You see, he was worried he'd befined for letting his sheep
graze in that area and afterthis confession, he took the

(09:32):
police deeper into the woods.
Roughly 800 meters from thefirst spot, they found another
body or was remained of one.
A skull, three bones andfragments of clothing was all
that was left.

(09:52):
Police believed the remainsbelonged to Maria Beru, a
46-year-old woman from Rekitoasa.
She had to disappear in Augustthe same year after leaving to
visit her sister in Vaslui.
Unfortunately, no concretecause of death could be

(10:13):
identified, but Maria's familyhad doubts.
They never believed the remainsin the woods were of their
mother.
Her children pointed out thatthe skull had all its teeth when
their mother, they said, hadbeen missing one for years, and

(10:34):
although later on they requesteda DNA test, authorities
declined, quoting the high costfor the DNA test as well as the
sample being too degraded.
To this day, maria was neverlaid to rest.
The investigation in thesemurders didn't actually lead

(10:57):
anywhere concrete.
The investigation in thesemurders didn't actually lead
anywhere concrete.
The first thing theinvestigators noted was that the
forest where the remains werefound was very remote, hidden
behind a hill and not visiblefrom the road.
Locals described it as a quietarea that had once attracted sex

(11:22):
workers.
It wasn't a place you'd comeacross by accident.
So could the criminal be alocal.
This theory was ruled outquickly.
As you see, the one responsiblefor this murders must have had
a car.
All women were hitchhikingbefore their tragic end, so the

(11:42):
theory the police had was thatthe women were picked up,
murdered in another location andthen their bodies were left in
these secluded locations.
And, as we mentioned at thestart, car owners were very few,
especially in the villages nearthese woods.
Four witnesses actuallyreported seeing a red dacia

(12:08):
parked nearby the woods and onethought he saw a woman in the
backseat, and although a sketchwas made from their accounts,
the witnesses had been drinkingthat day and in the end the lead
didn't hold up.
And that was it Three womenmurdered in the same area,

(12:33):
similar disappearances and noclues or witnesses.
So the cases went cold and fouryears passed without another
case, but that was until 2004.

(13:10):
On 20th of May 2004, 29-year-oldMiwara Mania had just finished
her shift at a bread factory inBerlan.
The next day was her mother'sname day an important
celebration in Romania and sheplanned to visit home in the

(13:35):
village of Šișcani.
To get there she would need tohitchhike, so that afternoon she
walked to the usual spot near agas station and then she
vanished.
One week later, her body wasdiscovered in Tatarang Forest

(14:00):
near Hush.
This time, the violence Miurahad endured was more apparent
Her blouse had been pulled overher head, her pants and
underwear had been pushed downand one shoe was missing.
She had been punched in theface and strangled, possibly
with one hand, but unlike theother women, her jewellery was

(14:23):
still present, but her coat andbag were never discovered.
It makes you wonder has thekiller almost been discovered?
That's why he was in a rush andleft without her jewelry.
Unfortunately, heavy rains hadwashed away most of the forensic

(14:48):
evidence.
It wasn't even clear whethershe had been sexually assaulted,
but it was clear that, yetagain, no one had seen or heard
anything.
So the investigation stalledand once again, the case went

(15:09):
cold.
For over a decade, the Romaniancases remained unsolved, files
just gathered dust and thefamilies were left waiting for
an answer.
Then, unexpectedly, came abreak, but not in Romania.

(15:36):
This time it was in Germany.
On 2nd of June 2017, a41-year-old Romanian man named
Cătălin Ciolpan was arrested byGerman authorities, not in
connection with the Husch cases,but for two murders that had

(16:02):
taken place in Austria andGermany.
The first victim was LucilleKlobut, a 20-year-old French
student in Austria.
French student in Austria In2014,.

(16:23):
While walking home along theRiver Aisne, she was attacked,
sexually assaulted and killedwith a metal bar.
Two years later, in 2016, 27year old Caroline Gruber from
Endingen, germany, went joggingand never returned.
Her body was found days later,also beaten and assaulted From

(16:48):
the get-go.
The investigators suspected theoffender to be someone who
traveled for work.
Both crimes occurred nearhighways and both on Sundays
when commercial traffic isrestricted.
So a major task force wascreated and they had a mammoth
task Review all vehicle data,mobile phone records and license

(17:14):
plates traveling in the daysthe two women were abducted.
Over 4,000 individuals werescreened.
Katalin Cholpan was number4,334.
His phone has also pinged nearthe crime scenes and they later

(17:37):
found his DNA matched the onefound on both victims.
He was arrested and sentencedto life in prison.
After his arrest in Germany,romanian police were notified
and reopened a series of oldcases from the Hush region.

(17:59):
They discovered that Ciolpanhad grown up in Galats, which is
not far from where the crimesin the early 2000s occurred, and
he often drove through Husharea for work.
He had also once owned a reddacia matching the witness

(18:20):
description from the 2000, andwas known to collect firewood
from the same forest where theremains of Safta and Maria were
found.
They also learned that in 2005,a woman in Yash, which is a
city close to Hush, had reportedChol Pan for attempting to

(18:43):
attack her.
The case ultimately wentnowhere as, according to the
police, there wasn't enoughevidence to pursue charges.
I wonder if it had anything todo with the woman being a sex
worker.
However, now with freshattention on the Hush cases,

(19:04):
romanian investigators finallytook a closer look.
They even tested a DNA samplecollected from Miura's body back
in 2004 and compared it toCholpan's, but it didn't match.
The result wasn't definitive.
The sample had been badlydegraded by time and exposure to

(19:28):
the elements.
Still, investigators noted thestrong geographic and behavioral
similarities between Cholpan'sknown crimes and the Hush
murders.
The evidence was circumstantial, but to them it was compelling.

(19:51):
Romanian authorities officiallyconsidered Catalin Cholpan the
prime suspect in the Hushkillings.
The pattern was very clearVictims who were isolated,
attacked in remote locations andleft behind without a trace.
And many believe there might beeven more victims who have

(20:16):
never been found.
If that's true, then somewherein the forests and fields of
Eastern Romania there are liveslost that may never be recovered
.
Catalina Ciolpan is now servinga life sentence in Germany,

(20:51):
convicted of two murders andsuspected in several more and
suspected in several more, butin Romania, the families of
Marcella, safta, maria and Miuraare still waiting for answers,
for closure and for justice.
That remains unfinished.
Three of these women weremothers.

(21:13):
All were daughters, friends,neighbours just trying to get
where they needed to go.
They weren't doing anythingunusual, but sadly they crossed
paths with the monster.
Thank you for listening to ClueTrail.

(21:35):
If you'd like to support theshow and get access to bonus
content, head over to Patreonand join the community.
Just search ClueTrail Podcastor click the link in the show
notes.
Until next time, stay curiousand stay safe.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Thank you, you.