Today, we're going to look at one of the most unbelievable revenge stories I've ever come across, but you won't even know that it's a revenge story until the very end. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of The Strange, Dark, and mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do, and we upload once a week. So if that's of interest to you, the next time the like button is out of town, secretly bug their house with cameras and microphones, and then livestream those feeds on the billboards in Times Square, New York. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. In the early evening of May seventh, 2008, a 65-year-old woman named Zavanna Temelkoska walked around her kitchen inside of her apartment in the little southeastern European city of Casevo. Casevo is a quiet place at the base of this huge mountain in Northern Macedonia. And while it's totally beautiful, it's utterly remote, and basically nothing really of note happens here. Zavanna cleaned houses for a living, but on this particular day, she was on a day off, and so she was just hanging out at her apartment, waiting for her adult son, named Zaron, to come home.

It was a beautiful, warm evening that night, and so Zavanna had the windows in the kitchen as she walked around making herself something to eat. And at some point as she was doing this, she heard her phone ring. And so she grabbed it and answered, and she heard the sound of her friend on the other line. But her friend's voice sounded strange. It was strained and very uncomfortable, and shewas asking Zivana if she was paying attention to the news right now. Did she have the radio on or the TV? And Zivana was like, no, why? And the friend would tell her that all over the news right now, there was this huge, terrible traffic accident that had happened in their town. And unfortunately, Zivana's son, Zauron, who she was waiting for to come home, was apparently involved in this accident. Zivana let out a strangled cry when she heard this, and then just dropped what she was using to make food, and turned, and ran out the door. And when she did, her neighbor, who was outside, saw her emerge and yelled out to her, Hey, is everything okay? And Zavanna, as she literally just continued running towards the road, she basically blurt it out to the neighbor that her son was hurt and she was going to the hospital.

And this neighbor watched as Zavanna just ran down the road, turned the corner, and disappeared. Zavanna did not have a car of her own, and so literally she was going to run to the hospital to make sure her son was okay. A little while later, that same neighbor who had just watched Zavanna disappear around the corner, heard a knock on their door. And so the neighbor went to the door, they opened it up, and they were totally shocked at who they saw standing outside. It was Zavanna's son, Zauron, who did not appear to be hurt in any way. But before the neighbor could ask any questions about this, Zauron, who looked visibly confused, said to the neighbor, Hey, have you seen my mom? We were supposed to meet and have dinner together, and it's just totally unlike her to disappear without telling me where she was going. The neighbor just stared at Zoron for a second, having no idea what was going on here. And then the neighbor was like, Well, wait a minute. Zoron, were you in a car accident? And Zoron's like, no, what are you talking about? And then the neighbor filled Zoron in about how they had seen his mother run outside.

And she had mentioned how her son had been in this car accident, and she literally ran to the hospital. Zauron was just as mystified by this as the neighbor was. And so Zauron just grabbed his phone and called the hospital to see if his mother was there. But when the hospital picked up, they would tell Zauron that his mother was not there. She had not been there all day. And two, even though they had heard reports about this car accident in town, there had not been any car accident victims brought to the hospital at all that day. And so by the end of that night, when Zauron really had no idea what had happened to his mom, where she was, or what was going on with this car accident thing, he just did the only thing he could think to do, which was go to the police and report his mother missing. Nine days later, on May 16th, when still, Zavanna was missing and the police had no idea what happened to her. There were no new leads, nothing. On this day, a 56-year-old reporter named Flado Taneski, who actually happened to live not that far away from where Zavana lived, he got a call from one of his police sources, and the source would tell him that Zavana had actually just been found, even though this was not public information.

And unfortunately, Zavanna was dead. Her body, which had been beaten and strangled and stabbed, had been found wrapped up in plastic and dumped in this illegal dumping area not far from the town's football stadium. The source told Vladdo that when her body was searched, they discovered she still had valuables on her person, and so that ruled out the possibility that this was a robbery gone wrong, which was the initial theory about what they were seeing. However, when police had done an initial probe into Zavanna's life to figure out who this victim was, they discovered that she was just this poor old cleaning lady who had no enemies to speak of. And so it really just made no sense that she was the victim of such an obviously brutal and intimate murder that was not financially motivated, at least not on the surface. Flato thanked to Source for all the information and then hung up. Vladdo's source had sounded really shocked by this murder as he was telling Vladdo. But now, as Vladdo was sitting here thinking about what he had just been told, he wasn't really shocked as much as he was suspicious. He felt like something just was off about this murder.

You know, maybe, Zavana appeared to be this poor old cleaning lady with no enemies. But in reality, maybe that wasn't who she was. Maybe she was leading a secret life that got her killed. Or maybe she had stumbled upon something she was not supposed to see and that got her killed. Vlado had no idea, but he just felt like, you know what? There's something off about this, and it needs to be investigated. Now, Vlado had a reputation in town for being this very aggressive and fearless journalist who had no problem diving headfirst into some of these really murky stories that could involve corruption or misuse of power. And he would get to the bottom of it, and he would publish these articles where he spoke really critically about the government, about police, about anybody really who was in a position of power. But as a result of conducting himself this way, over his 30-year career, Vladdo had been threatened with violence many, many times for things he had written or things he was about to write. But even though Vladdo knew this Zavana murder case had the potential to once again put him in hot water with the powers that be, he still felt like it was his responsibility to dive into this thing and get to the truth.

So feeling determined, Vladdo grabbed his notebook and pen, and he walked out the front door of his house, and he made the several minute long walk over to Zavana's house. And when he got there, her son, Zoron, opened the door, and a few minutes later, Flado and Zoron were sitting in the kitchen talking about what had happened. Zoron told Flado all about how he came home and discovered his mom wasn't there. And then he went to the neighbor's house and they explained how they had seen Zavon running off to the hospital to go look for Zoron. But Zauron's like, I'm not hurt. I didn't get into a car accident. What's going on here? And as Zauron spoke, Flado took lots of notes and asked lots of follow-up questions. And by the end of this interview, when Vlado felt like he knew everything there was to know about Zavana, he felt like he actually had a pretty good working theory as to what actually happened to Zavana. And the reason he felt like his theory could be accurate had to do with what Zoron told Vlado his mother did for a living that she was a cleaning lady.

Now, it took Vladow a couple of days to put together his story. He had to go out and interview dozens more people in the neighborhood. But finally, on May 19th, so just three days after Zavana was found murdered, Vladow published a story in the newspaper, and the story's explosive headline read a serial killer, Stawks Casevo. Did you know that this YouTube channel is not the only place where we post strange, dark, and mysterious content? No. We also have The Mr. Ballin' Podcast, which has over 180 episodes, all strange, dark, and mysterious that are available to listen to right now on Amazon Music. And at least half of them are completely exclusive to the podcast, which means you cannot get those stories unless you listen on the podcast. But that's not all. In addition to the Mr. Ballin' podcast, we also have Mr. Ballin' medical mysteries podcast, which, you guessed it, covers medical mysteries. They're all strange, dark, and mysterious, but medical is the focus. And that podcast is available on all podcast platforms. But if you listen on Amazon Music, you can get batches of eight episodes that get released in seasons. On all other podcast platforms, it's one episode a week.

But Amazon Music, it's like a bench. So again, in addition to this YouTube channel, there are two other places, Mr. Ballin Podcast and Mr. Ballin's Medical mysteries, where you can find more new, original, strange, dark, and mysterious content. Go check them out. In the story, Vlado says that Zavana's murder was very likely not an isolated killing. Instead, her murder was likely linked to two other murders of two other women. And these two other victims looked an awful lot like Zavana, literally. They were poor, older women who were also cleaning ladies. And so that was why when Vlado was talking to Zauron and Zauron described how his mother was, what she did for work, what she looked like, that Vlado started to remember these other two victims, and he put it all together. The other two victims were 64-year-old Mitra Simdjanoska, who was murdered in 2005, and the other victim was 56-year-old Lubitsa Lukoska, who was murdered in 2007. Now, Vlado's story was totally explosive because what he's saying is that there is a serial killer that is on the loose in this town. But this story was also highly explosive because Vlado spoke very critically about the police who were involved in this investigation.

Specifically, he pointed out that the 05 and 07 murders of those two other women, those have been totally mishandled because arrests had been made in at least one of those cases, and clearly whoever they arrested was innocent here, and so the police just totally dropped the ball, at least in Vladdo's opinion. And when the police read Vladdo's story, they were very upset at him because he was so critical of them. However, the police also did see that Vladdo had managed to uncover a lot of new details from all of his interviews with witnesses and people in the neighborhood that did seem to paint a picture of this potentially really being a serial killer, not individual isolated killings. And so the police, based on Vladdo's story, would actually begin investigating a serial killer in their midst. They linked all three murders, and they began basically a new investigation. However, at the same time they began this new investigation, Vladdo began to notice that he was being tailed all the time by police. He would be out in town doing his job, reporting and interviewing people, and there'd just be a police officer standing somewhere in the distance watching him.

But Vladdo had anticipated that no matter what, he was likely going to face some blowback from the police. And so he just accepted that they were going to watch him and maybe try to intimidate him, but it wasn't going to bother him because he had done his job. He had reported the story the best that he could, and if they wanted to watch him from a distance, they could do that. Early June, so about two weeks after Zavana had been found murdered, the police in this new serial killer investigation they were doing had narrowed down their suspect pool, which was in the hundreds, down to just three people. And they felt like they were very close to making an arrest. About a month later, on June 20th, so by this point, Vlado is still being trailed by police all the time, but the police have not come out publicly and said anything about the serial killer case. They're just continuing their investigation. But on this day, June 20th, Vladdo's editor at the newspaper got a call from a police officer telling the editor they were about to make an arrest in the serial killer case.

And as soon as their conversation ended, the editor called Vladdo to tell him the news. But when he called Vlado, Vlado didn't pick up, which was very unusual. Vlado always answered his calls. And the editor was also thinking to himself how strange it was that this officer had contacted him and not Vlado. Like, why aren't you going to the guy writing the stories and telling him about this new development. Why are you coming to me? The editor would continue to try calling Vlado several more times, but Vlado never answered. And so ultimately, the editor just assumed that Vladdo must be busy interviewing someone, or maybe more likely, he had already learned about this imminent arrest, and he was on-scene, ready to capture in real time this arrest that was about to take place. Meanwhile, on a quiet street in Casevo, the police had surrounded this very modest two-storey home that was very overgrown upfront. It was surrounded by tall fur trees, and all the windows had heavy drapes covering them up. And then once the police felt like they had totally surrounded this building, a team of officers walked up onto the porch and knocked on the door and yelled out that they were police and whoever was inside to come out with their hands up.

And for a moment, it was just totally silent and tense. And then the police on the porch heard footsteps inside the house. They had their guns ready to go, and then the door slowly opened up. And this man, who seemed very unthreatening and confused, stepped out onto the porch, and the police immediately arrested him and took him away. A few minutes later, back at the newspaper headquarters, Flado's editor got another phone call, and when he answered, it was the same police officer who had called before to warn him about this upcoming arrest, except this time, the officer was calling to say the arrest had been made, they had caught their serial killer, and then he told the editor the name of the person they arrested. And when the editor heard the name, he dropped the phone in shock. The serial killer was Vladdo. It would turn out that Vladdo appeared very professional and calm on the outside, but inside, he was full of rage, specifically at his mother, who he viewed as this terrible, cruel person. And after she died in 2002, Vladdo became obsessed with this idea of getting revenge on his deceased mother.

And the way he decided he would do that would be by killing random women who just looked and seemed an awful lot like his mother, i. E, they were poor, older, and cleaning ladies. His three victims, Mitra in 2005, Lubitsa in 2007, and Zivana in 2008, had all personally known Vladdo's mother. And so Vladdo had actually used that connection to gain each of his victims trust. And then once he had their trust, he would lure them away to strangle, stab, and beat them to death. In Vlado's explosive newspaper story, he lied about a whole bunch of things just to throw the police off. Like, for example, he made up that he spoke to a witness who claimed to have seen Zavanna get into a car with two men right before she vanished. Vladdo did not see that. That was just a total lie designed to confuse the police. Vladdo had also been the one to plant that story on the radio about Zavanna's son, Zauron, being in this terrible accident. That had caused Zavana to run out of her house and be vulnerable to be scooped up and killed, which is exactly what Vladdo wanted.

He had called the radio station and told them about this accident. And because he had previously worked for that radio station, they believed him without doing any fact-checking and broadcast the story. And so really, that whole radio broadcast was just a very intentional trap by Vladdo to kill Zavana. But what ultimately got Vladdo caught was in the article he wrote, he left in some really specific details that the police had not revealed to the public. And so basically, by including these in the story, it meant Vladdo had an inside scoop into what was really going on. Like, for example, Vladdo said that all three of these women who had been killed by the serial killer had been strangled to death by telephone cords that were left at the scene. But again, the police had not revealed that to the public. And so when they read the story, they actually became very suspicious of Vladdo and thought he could be involved in these murders. And so when Vladdo felt like the police were trailing him just to intimidate him, trying not to intimidate him. In reality, the police were trailing Vladdo because they thought he could be the murderer.

And eventually, when they got a DNA sample from Vladdo, it was confirmed that their suspicions were right. He was the killer. After Vladdo's arrest, he was immediately charged with two of the three murders, and the police were getting ready to charge him with the third, and they were even looking at a fourth victim potentially that maybe Vladdo had killed as well, but they weren't entirely sure yet. But on June 23rd, so just three days after Vladdo's arrest, he died in jail in a way that really didn't make any sense. Vladdo had drowned in a small bucket of water inside of his jail cell while there were three other people inside of that jail cell with him who all said they didn't notice it happening. Officially, Vladdo's death was ruled a suicide, and after his death, all of the murder investigations were closed. It's no secret that many of the stories I cover involve people attacking other people, or even killing other people. And I just need you to know that I do not take that lightly. The people in these stories are real. They had real families and friends. They had jobs, careers, ambitions, goals, good days, bad days.

I mean, they were just like us. But unfortunately, the way the media often portrays violent crime is the focus of the news coverage is on the perpetrator or perpetrators, and not on the actual victim or victims or their families. When the news coverage fades about the crime, the victim and their families are just forgotten about until now. The Mr. Ballin Foundation, which was founded in 2022, exists solely to honor and support victims of violent crime as well as their families. And because the operational expenses of the Mr. Ballin Foundation are funded entirely by Ballin Studios, it means charitable donations that come into the foundation go 100% to the cause. Not 99%, not 98%, 100%. Your money that comes in, it goes right out the door to the cause. And this year, in 2023 alone, with your help, we raised $700and $63,420. And that money was given directly to victims of violent crime, as well as their families. And also, portions of that money were also given to reputable, established, charitable organizations that are out there right now making a real difference for these forgotten people that we're trying to help. If you want to get involved, go to Mrballon.

Foundation and click on the tab at the top of the screen that says get involved. Most people join the Honor them society, which you can learn about on the get involved tab, because in addition to supporting the cause, that tier of giving also affords you perks like exclusive access to special live events with me. So again, the website is Mrballon. Foundation, and just click on get involved. Thank you so much to all of our donors, our supporters, and, of course, the fans of The Strange, Dark, and mysterious. Without all of you, none of this would be possible. So that's going to do it. If you enjoyed today's story, be sure to check out our podcast called the Mr. Ballin' Podcast, where we have hundreds more stories, a lot like this one, but many of them are only available on the podcast. Again, it's called the Mr. Ballin' Podcast, and it's available exclusively on Amazon Music.