David Dragičević (21) was a multi talented young man from Banja Luka. He studied at two faculties – the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Banja Luka and online IT Academy from Zemun. He had been earning a pocket money ever since he was in secondary school by repairing his friends’ computers and giving private lessons in mathematics and computer science to primary and secondary school students.
Davor Dragicevic saw his son David for the last time on March 17, 2018, at about 7 o’clock pm. At that time, David said goodbye to his father and went out. On that fateful night, he came out of his house for a night out, from which he never came back.
At about 6 o’clock in the morning his father noticed that he was not there, which was unusual for him. He tried to call him, but his phone was turned off. He contacted David’s friends trying to get any information about him. Afterwards, he called the police. Even then, the police officers acted frivolously telling David’s father that his son “was probably having fun somewhere”. Parents started a search which lasted for six days helped by friends and citizens. They searched Banja Luka neighbourhoods, and David’s father later stated that he personally had checked hundreds of abandoned facilities fearing that his son had been detained in some of them. During the search, the police did not have any information about his possible movement.
In the night of his disappearance, David was in his uncle’s café and told him: “Filip Ćulum is to blame if something happens to me.” He also sent the same message via Instagram to his friend who was in Slovenia at that time. In the night between March 17 and March 18, David was seen for the last time on the footage from the surveillance camera of the “988” café in the centre of Banja Luka. After that, there was no trace of him.
During the search, a witness showed up claiming that early in the morning on March 18 saw a mass fight from the balcony of their apartment in the centre of Banja Luka near the place where David was last seen. As they pointed out, more than 10 people had been beating a young man who was then thrown into a car and driven in an unknown direction.
They assumed it was David, which would both match the time and place of the event with respect to the last surveillance camera footage. The only camera that could record this event is a surveillance camera on a nearby Reifessen Bank. That footage was never found, and the members of the Ministry of the Interior allegedly seized the footage with an incorrect date by mistake.
After six days of searching, David’s body was found on March the 24th 2018 at the mouth of the rivers Crkvena and Vrbas. The Crkvena is a creek flowing through the city centre mostly underneath the ground and has been turned into a sewerage system. Banja Luka is situated on the banks of the river Vrbas.
David’s father soon identified his son’s body, and at that moment it was obvious that David was murdered in a monstrous manner. His body was full of bruises and injuries, indicating that the death was violent.
Pravda za anđela.