What to Know
More details have come out about a horrific crime that happened late last year, but a lot of unanswered questions remain. Beauty influencer and makeup artist Stefanie Pieper was reported missing in November 2025 and later found buried in the woods. A new report indicates that she may have been alive when she was buried inside a suitcase.
Previously, the Graz Public Prosecutor’s Office told People that an autopsy indicated that Pieper “had been subjected to violence” prior to her death. They also concluded that she had been strangled. Now, though, investigators are not so certain that she had died prior to being buried.
They say it’s “entirely possible” that she was actually alive at the time.
Prosecutor Dr. Christian Kroschl recently told Austrian outlet Bild that the timing remains unclear because “the autopsy could not definitively determine when the young woman died,” per E! News. The prosecutor said, “It is entirely possible that she was still alive when she was placed in the suitcase. However, it is equally possible that she was killed by strangulation beforehand.”
It was previously reported that Pieper’s 31-year-old ex-boyfriend “confessed” and told investigators where to look for Pieper, who had been reported missing several days prior.
Pieper was reported missing after she didn’t show up for a photoshoot.
A colleague reported the strange occurrence to the police that day. Her ex-boyfriend was arrested on November 24, according to People. Investigators decided to search a wooded area near Maribor, Slovenia the following day, knowing that the ex-boyfriend had “close family ties” there. They didn’t find anything.
But on November 28, Pieper’s ex-boyfriend allegedly admitted involvement and shared information about her whereabouts. After following his “directions on where to search for the missing woman,” investigators located Pieper’s body inside a suitcase that had been buried in the woods.
The suspect is awaiting trial.
According to Bild, the ex-boyfriend has claimed that he and Pieper had gotten into a fight and she allegedly tried to harm herself. He said that she applied pressure to her neck to stop her from harming herself with a knife. The publication noted that evidence collected during the investigation does not line up with his story about what had happened.
He is currently in custody and his trial is set to take place later this year. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Pieper’s last post on social media prior to her death showed her getting a pedicure.
In a video shared on Instagram, she walked her followers through the process and captioned it with, “Come with me to get my pedicure done.” People have commented on Pieper’s posts after her death to say that they think about her often. “I have to think about this all the time even though I didn’t know her,” one person commented on one of Pieper’s photos.
“Since the news, I’ve been holding my daughter more often and remembering that she was a daughter too… a loved one who would have wished for so much more life,” someone else wrote. “This just makes me endlessly sad.”
Some people’s comments were also calls to action because of the number of women who are killed by an intimate partner. “This needs an intervention at all levels,” one person commented. “Women and men, let’s take a stand against femicide.”
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