A year ago, the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIN) released the documentary Where is Sara? about the missing babies of Banja Luka mothers Aleksandra Blagojević and Nataša Stijak, who gave birth at the University Clinical Centre of the Republika Srpska (UKCRS) in 2018.
Following the documentary’s release on 1 April 2024, the Banja Luka District Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an ex-officio investigation. Over the past year, the Prosecutor’s Office has questioned 40 witnesses, ordered the analysis of autopsy samples, and gathered and reviewed about a thousand pages of documents. However, the question of where the babies are and who is responsible for their disappearance remains unanswered.
The Prosecutor’s Office has determined that the UKCRS conducted an autopsy on baby Sara after her death and that it possesses paraffin moulds containing samples of organs and tissues removed during the autopsy. The Prosecutor’s Office requested DNA testing, and the moulds were compared with a sample from her mother, Aleksandra Blagojević.
The forensic analysis confirmed that the tissue samples belonged to Sara, Blagojević told CIN reporters.
“Alright, so according to this, it turns out my child has died and is somewhere buried. So, the child is dead? Yes, they said! Well, where is it? I asked.” But she didn’t get an answer.
Still no answer
Over a year, the Prosecutor’s Office collected medical records from the University Clinical Centre of the Republika Srpska (UKCRS) as well as from the Banja Luka Health Centre. They also obtained burial registers and documentation from the Banja Luka Municipal Cemetery (JK Gradsko groblje), detailing the retrieval of deceased children, their storage in the morgue, and their subsequent burial.
The Prosecutor’s Office also secured records from the RS Institute of Forensic Medicine relating to exhumations and DNA testing.
In addition to questioning the mothers and their families, all doctors and medical personnel at UKCRS who had been involved in these cases were interviewed, as well as the management of the Municipal Cemetery, including both current and former directors, as well as the staff who had handled the deceased children taken from UKCRS, stored them in the cemetery morgue, prepared the bodies for burial, and carried out the interments.
The acting case prosecutor issued an order for a medical examination of the medical records, aiming to determine whether there were any lapses in the management of the pregnancies, the births, and the treatment of both mothers — Aleksandra Blagojević and her baby Sara and Nataša Stijak and her baby.
The Prosecutor’s Office informed CIN reporters that the examination is still ongoing.
This is not the first time the Prosecutor’s Office has conducted inquiries into this case. In 2019, Sara’s parents, Aleksandra Blagojević and Miloš Kuprešanin, reported everything that had happened to them, which led to the opening of an investigation.
However, in October 2021, the then-prosecutor, Zorica Baroš, issued a decision not to proceed with the investigation, citing reports from two experts who concluded there had been no negligence in the actions of the medical staff.
The Prosecutor’s Office did not question where Sara had been buried, even though her parents had mentioned this in their official statements.
Frustrated by the Prosecutor’s Office’s handling of the case, Aleksandra and Miloš arranged for an exhumation, which revealed that Sara had not been buried in the grave bearing her name. The staff at the City Cemetery explained that a grave mix-up had occurred and that Sara was most likely buried in the adjacent grave, but that the consent of the other mother would be needed for a new exhumation.
It was at this point that Aleksandra reached out to CIN. During the investigation, journalists were able to get in touch with Nataša Stijak, the mother of the baby who was supposed to be buried in that grave, and she gave her consent for the exhumation.
DNA test results later revealed that neither Sara nor Nataša Stijak’s baby had been buried in the graves in question.
In a short time, the documentary “Where is Sara?” on CIN’s YouTube channel has amassed nearly 900,000 views, and the testimonies of Aleksandra and Nataša have caused widespread public outrage. A debate was even sparked in the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (NSRS), where some lawmakers called on government representatives to provide answers.
MP Đorđe Vučinić told reporters that the documentary deeply disturbed him, and at the next NSRS session, he questioned entity Prime Minister Radovan Višković about the case of the missing baby Sara.
“I couldn’t believe such things could happen in our country,” said Vučinić.
“I followed the media coverage just as you (…) All I can say is that we will offer full support if anyone from the government, the prosecutor’s office, or the family reaches out. If we are needed in any way during this process, we are at your disposal,” Prime Minister Višković responded.
Višković called on the relevant authorities to shed light on the case and publicly expressed his readiness to meet with the parents. However, months passed, and the parents never received the promised invitation for a meeting.
“This means something big is being concealed,” says Milan Savanović, an MP in the NSRS.
In late November last year, during a session of the NSRS, he once again asked Prime Minister Višković why he had not yet invited the parents of the missing babies to a meeting, as promised. A few days later, Aleksandra and Miloš received an invitation to the long-awaited meeting. The Prime Minister pledged financial support for the association Aleksandra and Miloš were soon to establish, aimed at supporting the parents of missing children.
Savanović remains sceptical about the authorities’ true intentions in resolving the case: “Of course, I don’t believe them! I see it as one big tangled mess (…) It’s the same story: it just goes round in circles. No one has been held accountable. That’s why it’s being dragged out (…) to make people lose interest,” Savanović says, stressing that the public must remain alert.
“Sara didn’t just disappear from Aleksandra and Miloš! Sara disappeared from me, you, Mirko, Slavko, Adnan, Goran, Pero, Đuro… Do you understand? This is happening to our children,” he concludes.
