30 years since the Orlík Dam murders shocked the nation
On October 4, 1995, Czech police unveiled details of one of the most shocking crimes in the country’s modern history. The investigation started in the summer of that year when human remains were discovered in barrels at the bottom of the Orlik Dam.
The murders, committed in the first half of the 1990s, were the work of a five-member gang led by former police officer Karel Kopáč. Driven by greed for money and inheritance, they killed their victims, sealed the bodies in metal barrels—sometimes pouring acid over them—and dumped them into the Orlík Dam.
The investigation started on July 14, 1995, when divers recovered a welded barrel containing human remains. Other gruesome finds followed sparking a wave of arrests and interrogations. Investigators linked the gang to at least five victims: a businessman, a debt collector, a foreign national, and even the mother of one of the perpetrators.
The most ruthless of the killers, Ludvík Černý, executed victims with a shot to the back of the head. He was sentenced to life in prison. Kopáč, confined to a wheelchair after an accident, became the prosecution’s key witness, but later committed suicide behind bars. The case went down in history not only for its brutality, but also for the chilling methods of disposing of bodies—methods that were unheard of in Europe at the time.