The cold and calculated lies of a murderer with a gruesome secret (2025)

Marcin Majerkiewicz's plan kicked in hours after he'd cut up Stuart Everett

March was one of Stuart Everett’s favourite times of the year. Partial to a flutter on the horses, the Cheltenham festival was a highlight of his calendar.

He would often use it as an opportunity to meet up with his older brother Richard, back in his native Derby. Unmarried and without children, Richard was Stuart’s closest relative.

Despite living in different cities, they regularly kept in touch, sharing a joke on WhatsApp or chatting about sport.

Last March was no different. Stuart, 67, travelled to Derby and spent the week enjoying a few drinks at local social clubs, watching on with his brother as they willed on their bet to the finishing post.

When Richard waved off Stuart as he travelled back home to Manchester on that Saturday, he had no idea it would be the last time he would ever see his brother alive.

Weeks after Stuart had been murdered and dismembered, Richard still didn’t have the faintest idea anything was wrong.

Despite him being dead for over a week, Richard received a birthday card from his brother - and text messages from his phone.

It was only when the police came calling that Richard discovered that his sibling was dead and the person he had been chatting to was an imposter.

The pain and horror he must have experienced after being informed of how his brother met his gruesome death is unimaginable.

Exactly how Stuart died remains a mystery.

We know he was killed in his own home, likely hit over the head repeatedly with a weapon before being cut to pieces with a hacksaw.

The horrendous treatment of his body after death is perhaps a crime more associated with feuds within organised crime, with gangsters trying to send a message to rivals.

But Stuart, or as he was born, Roman Ziemacki, had no involvement in the underground world.

He lived a simple, quiet life. He didn’t have any enemies. Born in the UK, his parents were from Poland.

They settled in this country in the 1940s. Stuart had worked in jobs for the NHS and the Department for Work and Pensions.

He had never married and had no children. His passions included the music of the Rat Pack, Las Vegas legends Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, and the ‘Queen of Jazz’ Ella Fitzgerald. He enjoyed gardening and was a fan of cricket.

Stuart changed his name by deed poll, to reflect his feeling of Englishness and love of the country.

Allan Perry, a pal of Stuart’s for 45 years, described him as a 'jolly' man who 'liked a laugh'. He was 'someone everyone got on with'.

"He was pleasant and jolly," Mr Perry said. "Aside from that, he never talked about his life back in Manchester," Mr Perry said.

Stuart lived in a three bedroom house on Worsley Road in Winton, Eccles, He had moved in there in 2013. Stuart had health issues and was not working at the time of his death. He used a walking stick.

He was something of a ‘hoarder’, with piles of books, DVDs and boxes stashed around the house.

Living with him were two other men of Polish descent - Marcin Majerkiewicz and Michal Polchowski - who Stuart sub-let bedsits to in order to help pay the bills.

Majerkiewicz said he had known Stuart for many years, first meeting after he took an English course in Cheetham Hill which Stuart had led.

Later, Majerkiewicz came to live with Stuart at a previous home in Cheetham Hill. Majerkiewicz later followed him to Winton.

Majerkiewicz had been employed in retail, having previously worked as the manager of Subway and Wing Stop at the Trafford Centre.

He was unemployed in March last year. Majerkiewicz, 42, has two young sons and maintained a relationship with his ex-partner.

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Describing himself, he said: “I’m a normal average man. I like football, I like Manchester City, I watch TV, I see my children when I can.”

Polchowski lived a hermitic life, getting up early in the morning for his job at a meat packing factory in Bury.

He did not travel anywhere else other than home and work, it appeared. Polchowski sent much of his earnings to his wife in his native country.

The nature of Stuart and Majerkiewicz’s relationship remains unclear to this day.

There was a suggestion they may have been involved in a relationship, or at least, Stuart may have been interested in pursuing one.

In email conversations with a friend he had met online, Stuart introduced someone named ‘Kamil’ as his ‘partner’.

The picture he sent his pal was actually of Majerkiewicz. Whatever the true nature of their relationship, it was clear the pair were ‘close’.

Prior to Stuart’s murder, he had told his two housemates that their rent was likely to increase.

Stuart messaged Majerkiewicz saying: "There are price increases, there are new taxes, new bills for water, Talk Talk and council tax. It's not too bad. On the whole it means we must pay eight pounds each every month for the bills."

Nothing could justify what went on to happen next. But beyond those matters, prosecutors and police could not point to any motive for the horrors that were to unfold.

At some point on the evening of March 27, and into the early hours of March 28, Majerkiewicz murdered Stuart.

Pathological evidence suggested he repeatedly and forcefully hit over the head with a weapon in Majerkiewicz’s upstairs bedroom.

Neighbours did not hear anything. Even the adjoining house didn’t hear a peep.

Over the next week, having cut up Stuart’s body, Majerkiewicz began his mission to cover up his crime.

Travelling to beauty spots across Greater Manchester, he dumped pieces of Stuart’s body, carried in bags for life and wrapped in cling film.

The trips went totally unnoticed for a week, as Majerkiewicz began lying and deceiving to explain away the absence of his housemate.

His plan flew into action just hours after he’d used a saw to cut Stuart up.

"Hi Michal, I'm going to my brother's for Easter.” a message from ‘Stuart Everett’, sent to Michal Polchowski, read.

“I will write on Monday when I am coming back. Happy Easter." Later, another message sent to Polchowski purporting to be from Stuart claimed he’d had a stroke and was unable to return home, and that his belongings should be sent to Derby.

The cover up within Worsley Road also got underway. On the afternoon of April 2, Majerkiewicz googled 'best remover of stain carpet uk'. Cleaning products were used to try and remove evidence. Such products were later discovered at his partner’s home, containing Stuart’s DNA. Neighbours noticed black bags being removed from the property.

A skip was ordered, which was later the source of valuable intelligence for police.

A hacksaw blade containing Majerkiewicz’s blood was later seized. A heavily blood stained piece of carpet, which had been cut out from the scene of the crime in Majerkiewicz’s bedroom, was also found dumped in the skip.

It was on April 4 that human remains belonging to Stuart were first discovered and the hunt for a killer began.

Police did not discover who the body parts belonged to until after Majerkiewicz was arrested on April 25.

Majerkiewicz, believing he had killed with impunity, carried on living a lie.

He cowardly and callously impersonated Stuart in correspondence with his victim’s brother.

April 5 was Richard’s birthday, and he received a card in the post from his sibling, as he would expect.

The card read: "To Rich. Happy birthday. All the best, my old man.”

It was followed by a 'smiley face' and four kisses. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Later, Majerkiewicz’s fingerprints were discovered on the card.

A few days later, Richard received a WhatsApp message from his brother’s phone, letting him know he was going to have to move home as his property was being sold.

Richard said: "I replied 'best of luck' and reminded him it was my daughter's birthday that day. He messaged me that he had forgot and thanked me, and said he had sent her £20 for scratch cards.

"My daughter Marie told me she had received £20 in her account from Roman that he had transferred that day. It is a thing of Roman's to buy scratch cards for the family for Christmas and birthdays."

£20 was duly transferred, actually by Majerkiewicz, using Stuart’s bank details.

Again, nothing appeared out of the ordinary. It was only after Richard learned of his brother’s grizzly fate that alarm bells began to ring.

He said: "I have since looked at the birthday card and I don't recognise the handwriting as belonging to my brother.

“Benny [a nickname of Stuart’s] has never referred to me as my old man, this is not a phrase he would use, he was always a lot more endearing towards me."

Stuart’s brother was not the only person Majerkiewicz was lying to. “Unfortunately because of my health issues I need to move out,” Majerkiewicz told their landlord, pretending to be Stuart.

"Now I am still in hospital but I hope one day I will leave. If that happens I will be needing help 24/7. I am giving you over one month's notice to end my tenancy."

He went on to pay the rent for that month on April 6, from Stuart Everett’s bank account.

Majerkiewicz’s lies eventually came crashing down when eagle eyed officers spotted the killer on a bus on a Thursday lunchtime.

“It’s definitely a mistake, 100 per cent,” Majerkiewicz told the arresting officers after being informed he was under arrest on suspicion of murder. He carried on telling lies right to the end.

A jury of 12 of his peers didn’t buy them, and now, he will finally have to face the truth.