Kamil SNOOPY Szybiński’s unexplained tragedy. / translation using Google translator./

Father Krzysztof, an engineer, specialist in cellular telephony, mother of Elżbieta, a flight attendant, did everything to ensure Kamil’s best education. They sent him to primary school at the US embassy in Warsaw, and developed sports passions there. At the age of 19, he was already fluent in 3 languages, apart from English, also Spanish and French.
He was a very well-known figure in the rollerblading environment and the most difficult one in the acrobatic version. It’s enough to say that Kamil „Snoopy” Szybiński won the title of Polish champion in this discipline. He also practiced martial arts, he loved traveling, and besides all that – which rarely happens with such accumulation of talents – he was a happy, modest boy, kindly oriented to others.
Mysterious helicopter
On September 17, 2002, walking along the beach near Inspiration Point near Los Angeles, Charles Edward Mulhearn found Kamil’s body. It was around 11.00. A few minutes earlier, his attention was drawn to the helicopter circling over the beach, which quickly flew away.
The first autopsy was determined that a young Pole died as a result of a fall from a great height. To the question of how it is possible to make a jump in the air at a distance of as much as 15 meters, because the boy’s body was lying down from the foot of the mountain, there was never an answer. It is physically impossible, but American investigators did not even try to get interested in this fact. They decided that it was suicide, because Kamil for some time went to a psychiatrist and received „Zoloft”, a drug with a similar effect as the popular anti-depressant „Prozac”. Before his death, he was also in conflict with some of his classmates.
It was enough to close the matter quickly and forget about it.
What is the police hiding?
I’m talking to Krzysztof Szybiński almost 10 years after our first meeting. He and his wife never believed in his son’s suicide.
– I tried again to get Kamil’s photos from the place of the tragedy. Imagine that, like in 2002, I was refused again. Like I hit a wall of reluctance. As if someone was particularly interested in not going back to the matter. Such a local arrangement of policemen, officials and wealthy Americans whose children were learning with my son. I managed to put a commemorative plaque dedicated to Kamil in college, but only I know how much of me the west and nerves cost – he recalls bitterly.
Two years after Kamil’s death, his colleague visited Poland. – We met at the grave. He was very moved. But you know what, all this our meeting at the cemetery, I had such a strong conviction that this boy wants to confess to me something, that he is beating with his thoughts that for some reason the conscience gives him no peace. Unfortunately, I lacked the courage to encourage him to confide. To this day I have a grudge against myself – says Szybiński and his voice is breaking.
Hounded and intimidated
In the Kamil’s room in the academic town, on August 26, 2002, a group of boys and girls burst in at about 23.00. Antenna from the mobile phone tried to put him in the anus. Kamil broke free and ran out of the room to call his father. A teenager, an American, followed him to beat him. After a few seconds, he was lying on the ground.
„Kamil is cool,” the witnesses told the event. However, not much has changed. The boy continues to signal to his father some indefinable conflict with the environment in which he resides. Asking what’s going on, he says that „it’s best to tell him directly.” My father senses in a conversation with his son a big problem and fear for something: – Dad, they tease me and they bother me to learn. They can only talk about women and cars …
In this situation, the parents write a letter to Liz Lisan, a school counselor. She and her husband have known Kamil since 2001. The boy spends the weekends with them. Krzysztof decides to fly to the US for a week and discuss his son’s case at his school. The date of father’s arrival is set for September 14.
Dad, come
On the day of Krzysztof’s departure from Poland, Kamil calls: – Dad, I would like you to come in a few days …
They decide to meet one week later. On the weekend of 13/16 September, Kamil spends his time with Lizan. Unexpectedly, in a telephone conversation on September 16, he states: „Dad, it was not my decision to postpone your arrival …”
– Whose?
– I’ll tell you on the spot …
They agree that they will meet on September 20 or 21. On the same day my father talks to Kamil several times informing him about the package sent by his mother, which will probably arrive on September 17 and about $ 200 sent by the daughter of his friend from Dayton. They also specify in this conversations what type of high-performance rollers Kamil is supposed to bring, because the boy wants to present his skills to his colleagues.
Last conversation
The last conversation between father and son takes place on September 17, around 16.19, according to the time of Los Angeles. Kamil says he can not sleep because the party is just going on in his dorm and it’s very loud. (Then his colleagues said they were watching TV

He made an appointment with his father that he would call in an hour. When there was no telephone at the agreed time, Krzysztof tried to contact him many times, but to no avail. The last call is made around 10am on the following day, wanting – as he says – to wake up son for classes. Still, nobody answers the phone.

Further information is based on scanty facts obtained from the police, a private investigator and from the college management. Apparently, Kamil was seen in the academic room around 19.30 … At 20:30 he was seen by Chris Lee. Apparently, Liz Dedrick also saw him before 8:00 pm and it’s around the place of the tragedy … Apparently, apparently, apparently …

On September 18, a random passerby became interested in a helicopter performing maneuvers just above the ground. Lured by this view, the tourist went in that direction. But the helicopter flies away …

Errors in the investigation

From the legal analysis of the information on the death of her son, which the Szybińskis ordered, it follows – to put it mildly – that the investigation was carried out with extreme carelessness

„(…) On the basis of the information collected so far, it is not possible to determine what Kamil did on the morning of the death, how he reached the school, or how and when he reached Inspiration Point. It is very likely that both to school and to Inspiration Point, Kamil was driven by car. It has not been established who of Kamil’s friends has a car. It was also not determined where they were at the supposed time of Kamil’s death. The crew of the helicopter was not established, which made a flight over Inspiration Point at a critical time and was not interrogated. There are no unambiguous data from findings of autopsies. During the first section, no injuries were found on Kamil’s body not related to falling from heights. During the second section (made in the second half of October) injuries to the leg, injuries in the armpit and internal organs were found (…) – reads in the document.

I know and I will not say

The analysis assumes three versions of what really could happen. In the first – death occurred as a result of suicide, in the second – as a result of an unfortunate accident. The third version mentions murder.

The lawyer preparing the analysis recognized the first two versions of Kamil Szybiński’s death as unlikely. The victim was athletic, she had trained reflexes, quick assessment of distance, sense of balance. An accident was therefore not an option. Suicide, as unlikely, excluded both the school psychologist and the psychiatrist, with whom Kamil treated himself. He did not leave a farewell letter.

For accepting the version about the murder speaks, among others the fact that the autopsy was performed twice and new conclusions in the post-report protocol, serious discrepancies in the testimonies of Kamil’s colleagues, the inability to determine the time of the boy’s movement to particular places of the critical day, and the fact of making two mysterious calls to Grandmother Kamil’s apartment after his death. The person who called was never found, the police did not even bother to track her down.

One of the officers, whom Krzysztof Szybiński talked to, only stated: „I have my opinion on this matter, but I will not say anything.” Szybiński had the impression that the policeman was afraid of something.

– At the pelvic level, Kamil had a hole in his body, as if he was being stabbed or a similar weapon – Kamil’s father adds quietly, who still believes that he will be able to break the silence and explain the cause of his son’s death.

Arkadiusz Panasiuk

photo from the archive Krzysztof Szybiński

Niewyjaśniona tragedia Kamil SNOOPY Szybińskiego – click.

Fragmenty programu telewizji prywatnej TVN w Polsce o tragicznej śmierci Kamila SNOOPY – click.