Austrian influencer Stefanie Pieper’s ex has been charged with murder after prosecutors alleged he killed her, hid her body in a suitcase and buried it in Slovenia.
Nearly ten months after Austrian influencer Stefanie Pieper was found dead inside a suitcase buried in a Slovenian forest, prosecutors have formally charged her former partner with murder.
The Graz Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the indictment on September 21, accusing the 31-year-old man of killing Pieper in her Graz apartment before transporting her across the border into Slovenia. He has also been charged with disturbing the peace of the dead, an offense connected to the alleged handling and burial of her body. He denies murdering Pieper.
Prosecutors allege a brutal attack inside her apartment
According to the indictment, Pieper was attacked on November 23, 2025. Prosecutors allege her former partner subjected her to intense strangulation and inflicted stab and cut wounds to her neck before forcing her into a travel suitcase. He is then accused of driving the suitcase from Graz to Slovenia and burying it in a secluded wooded area.
One disturbing question has followed the case for months: exactly when Pieper died. Earlier this year, prosecutors said the autopsy could not definitively establish the moment of death. That left open the possibility that she was still alive when she was placed inside the suitcase, although authorities stressed that it was also possible she had already died from strangulation.
A missed photoshoot turned into an international search
Pieper, a makeup artist and content creator who had nearly 50,000 Instagram followers, was reported missing after she failed to appear for a scheduled photoshoot. What began as a missing-person investigation quickly crossed national borders after suspicion turned toward her former boyfriend, a Slovenian citizen.
He was arrested in Slovenia the following day and later extradited to Austria. Police said at the time that, during questioning, he confessed and provided investigators with information about where to search. Slovenian authorities subsequently discovered Pieper’s body inside a suitcase buried in a forest.
That confession, however, is no longer his position.
He now denies killing Pieper
Prosecutors say the defendant currently denies the murder allegation while admitting that he transported Pieper’s body to Slovenia and buried it. The change means the circumstances of her death, and the evidence prosecutors say ties him to it, will now be fought over in court rather than settled by his earlier statements to investigators.
Authorities had also investigated the man’s brother and stepfather over suspicions that they may have helped move or bury Pieper’s body. Austrian prosecutors have since closed those investigations after finding no evidence that either man participated in relevant criminal acts inside Austria. Slovenian authorities are considering whether conduct allegedly occurring on their side of the border warrants separate proceedings.
If convicted of murder, Pieper’s former partner could receive between 10 and 20 years in prison or a life sentence under Austrian law, according to prosecutors. No trial date has yet been announced.
For a case that drew attention because of the horrifying circumstances in which Pieper was found, the September indictment marks a significant shift: the investigation is no longer simply trying to reconstruct what happened in November. Prosecutors have now put forward their version of events in a formal murder case, and the accused is contesting its central allegation.