Do you know who murdered ? On a September evening in 1998, a promising life was cut short on a wooded trail in Farmington, Connecticut. Agnieszka Ziemlewski, a 26-year-old Caucasian female, had recently moved into her own apartment in West Hartford and was establishing her career at an insurance company after graduating from the University of Connecticut. Known to her friends as "Agnes" or "Nikki," she had immigrated to the United States from Poland with her family in the early 1980s.
On September 24, 1998, during a routine walk along a path at the Metropolitan District Commission Reservoir, a popular spot for joggers and walkers, she was shot multiple times at close range in the neck. Her body was discovered just a hundred feet from the gate at Old Mountain Road. Investigators believe the attack was not a random act and that Agnieszka likely knew her killer.
For over two decades, the investigation into Agnieszka's murder yielded few public developments, leaving her family without answers and the case as Farmington's only unsolved homicide. The passage of time did not deter law enforcement, who continued to pursue leads. A significant break in the cold case came in June 2020 with the arrest of Katherine Pires, an East Hartford woman. Pires was not charged with the murder itself, but with hindering prosecution and interfering with an officer, both felonies.
Authorities alleged that Pires intentionally misled investigators to protect a person of interest in the case, who was a close friend of her husband. Back in 1998, she had provided this individual with an alibi that investigators deemed fraudulent, as it would have given the person of interest an impossibly short window of only eight to ten minutes to commit the murder and flee the scene. When re-interviewed in 2019, Pires reportedly embellished her original story, claiming that on the day of the murder, Agnieszka had come to the McDonald's where Pires worked and said she was being followed. However, investigators found that Agnieszka had been at her own workplace the entire day.
Despite the arrest of Pires, no one has been charged with the murder of Agnieszka Ziemlewski, and the case officially remains unsolved. Pires's criminal case for hindering prosecution concluded with a plea deal that resulted in probation, contingent on her cooperation with the ongoing investigation. The Farmington Police Department, in collaboration with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, continues to actively investigate the homicide, expressing confidence that the case will eventually be closed. A substantial reward is still being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Agnieszka's death.
