Woman who last saw Danka in Banjsko Polje: "If I had taken her in my arms, she would be alive today"

Photo: Nikola Andjic, Private archive

Toddler Danka Ilic (2) was killed on March 26 at 13:52 in Banjsko Polje, eastern Serbia.

Recommended

The suspects in this brutal murder are Srdjan Jankovic (50) and Dejan Dragijevic (50), both Vodovod utility company workers. Theya are currently kept in custody for up to 30 days on suspicion of committing aggravated murder. During the questioning, Dejan described the crime in detail, but regarding where the body of the victim was left, he "couldn't remember, neither (while questioned) by the police nor by the prosecutor."

Dejan's brother and father are suspected of helping him remove the evidence (the body). The father decided to remain silent during the questioning, while the brother died yesterday morning, while in police custody in the town of Bor.

On March 26, Danka Ilic's mother took her and her brother, also a toddler, to a house the family owns in Banjsko Polje, a settlement near Bor. Danka disappeared while the woman was fetching water for her son. The mother immediately called her husband, the police, family, neighbors to help her search for the child.

"I saw her for the last time in front of the gate (to the yard). She was so small that I believed her parents were somewhere near her. This neighborhood is quiet and we all let the kids walk in front of us. I haven't been sleeping for nights because of Danka. If I had taken her in my arms, she would be alive today... All this is disastrous for me...," a woman, a neighbor in Banjsko Polje, told Telegraf.rs.

That day was her son's birthday. Only later did she learned what had happened. First she turned to Danka's grandfather. She told him that she saw the child at the gate and that she was small and could not have wandered off far.

"The grandfather asked me why I didn't pick her up. I said I thought someone was with her. I feel guilty and responsible," says the neighbor.

After she took her child home from the kindergarten, the neighbor went to the yard of the Ilic family.

"Danka's mother was walking up and down, the father was crying next to the car. I joined the search for the child. I was also at the police station for a lie detector test. I told everyone I was sorry I didn't leave my house to pick her up. I thought her parents were accompanying her. If I had known she was alone, I would have run out of the house. I can't forgive myself. I have children. If something happened to them, I wouldn't survive it," the woman said, adding that the whole settlement was looking for the toddler.

"We combed through every inch of the area, but she was not there. I was hoping she was around, and if she had been kidnapped it would have been better than this outcome. I'm afraid of being on my own. When my husband works the second shift, I keep thinking that something terrible is going to happen. Little Danka did not deserve this. All this is a huge stress. The police interrogation, and everything after that," said the neighbor.

Days of mourning

"After the murder of Danka Ilic (2), the Vodovod Bor director has resigned for ethical reasons," the mayor of Bor, Aleksandar Milikic, told a press conference today.

Recommended People light candles and cry, poignant scenes in Bor: "We kept hoping that Danka would be found" They hit Danka, put her in the car, strangled her when she regained consciousness, now blame each other

As Mayor Milikic explained, the Vodovod director resigned because he finds it very difficult to cope with what has happened.

Milikic also said when "when the time comes" he will declare three days of mourning in Bor.

The mayor told the press that he also found it difficult to process the situation regarding Danka Ilic's murder, and that he cried.

He said he is also the father of a 2-year-old child, and took it all emotionally. The mayor said he had hoped the case would not have this outcome and believed until the last moment that Danka was alive and in Vienna, and would soon be back in the arms of her family.

According to Milikic, we should all work on empathy, and he revealed that he was in disbelief over "what kind of people we are becoming," and over the fact somebody is capable of committing such a terrible crime.

Republishing this article without the written permission of the Telegraf.rs portal's editorial board is forbidden

(Telegraf.rs)