The skeletal remains of a human body found two days ago in a wider area of Josipdol, 100 kilometres south of Zagreb, are identified as Antonia Bilic, a 17-year-old victim of the convicted rapist Dragan Paravinja, the local prosecutorial authorities and top Croatian forensic experts told a news conference in Karlovac on Thursday evening.
They said that the the victim was identified by DNA testing.
Antonia Bilic was last seen on Cikola Bridge in Drnis on the morning of 7 June 2011 entering a truck driven by Paravinja. Two weeks after her disappearance, the police located the truck, and found evidence such as hair and blood which confirmed that this 17-year-old girl had been in that vehicle. Immediately, a search was launched to locate Paravinja but he had already fled the country. As many as 40 witnesses were questioned and video footage about Paravinja's movements on 7 June 2011, the day when Antonia Bilic went missing, were shown during Paravinja's trial at the Sibenik County Court. Bilic went missing after she had entered Paravinja's truck near the southern Croatian town of Drnis. Although a large-scale search for the girl was conducted, her body had not yet been found until now, a year and a half since her disappearance. Upon his arrest in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 26 June 2011, Paravinja confessed to Bilic's murder, however, he later claimed that he was forced by the police to admit the crime.
Paravinja, a truck driver indicted for first degree murder of underage girl Antonia Bilic and two attempted rapes, was sentenced on 19 October this year by the Sibenik County Court to 40 years. The convict can appeal the ruling.
In December 2011, the East Sarajevo District Court sentenced him to two years and ten months in jail for rape committed in 2002. The 44-year old truck driver was also convicted of rape in Serbia where he was given four years and five months in prison.
