Smail Tulja: Convicted Murderer and Suspected International Serial Killer
Background
Smail Tulja, born Smajo Džurlić in approximately 1940 or 1941, was a Montenegrin man whose name became associated with a series of exceptionally brutal murders committed in the United States and Europe. He was convicted of one murder—the 1990 killing and dismemberment of Mary Beal in New York City—but investigators also examined him as a possible suspect in seven additional killings in Belgium and Albania. Those suspected connections were never proved in court, and the Belgian murders remain officially unsolved.
Tulja was born in Plav, then part of Yugoslavia and now located in Montenegro. He later immigrated to the United States and worked as a taxi driver in New York. He used several variations of his name, including Smajo Džurlić, Smail Dzulric and Smailj Tulja. His changes of name, frequent movement between countries and ability to disappear into immigrant communities made him difficult for investigators to trace.
The Murder of Mary Beal
Mary Beal was a 61-year-old Yugoslavian immigrant who lived in the Norwood section of the Bronx. She worked as a translator and real estate broker and was known in her neighborhood for regularly walking her six dogs. Beal had been involved in a relationship with Tulja, and some accounts described her as his wife or partner.
Beal disappeared from her Bronx home on September 15, 1990. Her unexplained absence immediately concerned neighbors because she had abandoned her dogs and failed to follow her familiar daily routine. Approximately three weeks later, sanitation workers discovered portions of a woman's body inside two garbage bags near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The victim had been decapitated and dismembered. Her head and hands were missing, making immediate identification extremely difficult. The removal of the hands appeared designed to prevent fingerprint identification, while the missing head concealed dental records and facial features. Investigators nevertheless determined that the remains belonged to Mary Beal.
The dismemberment displayed a deliberate attempt to conceal the victim's identity and transport the body without detection. Investigators believed Beal had been killed elsewhere before her remains were placed in the bags and abandoned. Tulja emerged as a principal suspect, but he left the United States before New York authorities could arrest and prosecute him.
Flight from the United States
After Beal's murder, Tulja traveled to Europe and adopted or began regularly using the Tulja surname. Authorities reportedly located him in Belgium as early as 1991, but he disappeared again before the New York case could be resolved. His movements later took him through Belgium, Albania and the former Yugoslavia.
Tulja's presence in Belgium became significant when investigators compared Beal's murder with a group of dismemberment killings near the Belgian city of Mons. The unidentified offender in those cases became known as the “Butcher of Mons” or the “Dismemberer of Mons.” Five women vanished between 1996 and 1997, and their remains were cut apart and deposited in garbage bags throughout the Mons region and nearby northern France.
The Butcher of Mons Murders
The Belgian killer selected women who had experienced social, financial or family difficulties and who frequented the neighborhood around the Mons railway station. The victims differed in age and background, but their bodies were treated in a similar manner. Their remains were systematically dismembered, packed into numerous bags and placed along roads, waterways and isolated paths.
On March 22, 1997, a police officer discovered bags containing human arms and legs below Rue Émile Vandervelde in Cuesmes, near Mons. Examinations showed that the remains belonged to three women. More bags were discovered during the following days and weeks, including a torso on Chemin de l'Inquiétude and additional remains near the Haine River.
The placement of the bags created the impression that the killer was intentionally confronting investigators. Some remains were left in conspicuous locations even after police activity in the area had intensified. In total, the dismembered remains were distributed among dozens of garbage bags. The extensive mutilation delayed identification and complicated efforts to determine precisely when and where each woman had been killed.
Tulja attracted attention because he had reportedly lived in Belgium during portions of the relevant period and because Mary Beal had also been decapitated, dismembered and placed in garbage bags. Investigators considered the similarities disturbing, but Belgian authorities found no physical evidence placing Tulja at the Mons crime scenes. Reports that he had been seen elsewhere in Belgium did not establish that he was in Mons when the women disappeared.
Victims Connected to the Investigation
- Mary Beal — Age 61. She disappeared on September 15, 1990, from the Bronx in New York City. Her dismembered body was found approximately three weeks later in two garbage bags near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Tulja was convicted of her murder.
- Carmelina Russo — Age 42. She disappeared on January 4, 1996, in the Mons region of Belgium. Part of her body was found on January 21, 1996, in the Scheldt River at Château-l'Abbaye in northern France. Her precise date of death was not established. Her murder was attributed to the unidentified Butcher of Mons, but Tulja was never charged.
- Martine Bohn — Age 43. She disappeared on July 21, 1996, near Mons, Belgium. Her torso was recovered from the Haine River later that month. Her exact date of death was not conclusively established. Tulja was investigated as a possible suspect but was never charged.
- Jacqueline Leclercq — Age 33. The mother of four disappeared from Mons on December 22, 1996. Her arms and legs were among the remains discovered in garbage bags at Cuesmes on March 22, 1997. Her precise date of death remains unknown. No charge against Tulja resulted from her murder.
- Nathalie Godart — Reported as 21 or 22 years old. She disappeared in Mons on March 16, 1997. Her torso was later recovered in the Mons area, with accounts placing the discovery either near Chemin de l'Inquiétude or in the Haine River. Her exact death date was not determined. Her killing remains officially unsolved.
- Begonia Valencia — Reported as 37 or 38 years old. She disappeared from her home in Frameries, Belgium, during the summer of 1997. Her skull was later discovered at Hyon. Available accounts do not establish an exact date of death. Tulja was considered in the broader investigation but was not prosecuted.
- Two unidentified or publicly unnamed women in Albania — Albanian authorities investigated the dismemberment killings of two women in 2006. Their remains were reportedly disposed of in a manner that drew comparisons to the Beal and Mons cases. Publicly available accounts do not consistently provide their names or verified dates of death. Tulja was suspected but never convicted of either killing.
The Albanian Investigation
In 2006, the discovery of two dismembered female victims in Albania generated another international inquiry. Albanian police requested assistance through the United States Embassy, and the matter eventually reached the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Investigators noticed possible similarities between the Albanian deaths, the Belgian murders and Mary Beal's killing in New York.
The Albanian inquiry did not produce enough evidence to solve the two murders. It did, however, help reconnect American investigators with information about Tulja's location. Authorities learned that he had returned to Montenegro, where he was living within reach of local law enforcement.
Arrest in Montenegro
Montenegrin police arrested Tulja in February 2007 following cooperation among American, Albanian and Montenegrin authorities. By that time, he was approximately 67 years old. Searches connected with the arrest also uncovered ammunition that Tulja was reportedly not permitted to possess.
New York authorities wanted him returned to the United States to face prosecution for Beal's murder. Montenegro, however, did not extradite its citizens. The country had only recently become independent and did not have an extradition arrangement that allowed Tulja to be transferred to New York.
Rather than allowing the case to end, Montenegrin authorities agreed to prosecute him domestically for the murder committed in the United States. Evidence gathered by the New York Police Department and the FBI was presented in a courtroom thousands of miles from the original crime scene.
Trial and Conviction
Tulja denied murdering Mary Beal and maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings. The prosecution relied on evidence connecting him to Beal, his departure after her disappearance and the circumstances surrounding the discovery of her mutilated body. Witness testimony and investigative records from the United States were incorporated into the Montenegrin case.
A Montenegrin court found Tulja guilty of murdering and dismembering Mary Beal. The conviction was announced in 2010, and he was sentenced in July 2010 to 12 years in prison. The judge stated that the evidence left no reasonable doubt that Tulja had killed Beal.
The sentence was comparatively limited despite the severity of the crime because the Montenegrin court was applying its own criminal laws to a murder committed two decades earlier in another country. Tulja's defense attorney announced plans to appeal, while Tulja continued to deny responsibility.
Was Smail Tulja the Butcher of Mons?
The theory that Tulja was the Butcher of Mons rested primarily on similarities in the treatment of the bodies and his possible presence in Belgium. Mary Beal and the Belgian victims were dismembered, and their remains were placed in garbage bags. The crimes also involved efforts to hinder identification and separate body parts across different disposal locations.
Those similarities were compelling enough to attract international scrutiny, but they were not sufficient to prove Tulja committed the Belgian murders. Investigators could not establish through DNA, fingerprints, eyewitness testimony or other physical evidence that he handled the Mons victims. Although he had reportedly stayed in Belgian cities such as Brussels, Verviers, Arlon or Virton, authorities did not conclusively place him in Mons during the killings.
Belgian investigators ultimately did not charge Tulja. The Butcher of Mons remains officially unidentified, and the five Belgian victims cannot accurately be described as Tulja's confirmed victims. Likewise, the two Albanian murders were never conclusively linked to him.
Death and Unanswered Questions
Smail Tulja died in Montenegro on February 12, 2012, while serving his prison sentence. He was approximately 70 or 71 years old. His death ended the possibility of questioning him further or prosecuting him for additional crimes.
Tulja was therefore a convicted murderer and a suspected international serial killer rather than a man judicially established to have committed a confirmed series of murders. Only Mary Beal's killing resulted in a murder conviction. Nevertheless, the similarities among the American, Belgian and Albanian cases, combined with Tulja's movements across those countries, ensured that investigators continued to view him as a potentially significant figure in several unresolved deaths.
The murder of Mary Beal was solved through international cooperation nearly 20 years after she disappeared. The larger mystery remained unresolved: whether Tulja was responsible only for Beal's death or whether he traveled across Europe leaving additional dismembered victims behind him. Without conclusive forensic evidence, the full extent of his violence may never be known.
