Gabriela Peeva and her mother Krasimira to Stand Trial for the Murder of Peyo Peev, who was found strangled to death in his car in Sofia

The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office has filed charges before the Sofia City Court against Krasimira Trifonova and Gabriela Slavova for the murder of Peyo Peev, committed in complicity and in an especially cruel manner.

• A man found strangled to death in his car in Sofia, child custody dispute is the possibe cause of the murder

The body of the 44-year-old man was discovered on January 21, 2024. The wife and her mother were arrested in connection with the crime. The investigation concluded that the victim had been sitting in the driver's seat of his car at the time of his death. The cause of death was strangulation, investigators concluded.

At present, the accused Krasimira Trifonova is being held in custody under a detention order, while Gabriela Slavova is under house arrest. Both women have been subjected to a procedural restriction preventing them from leaving the country.

Photos: Archive

• Two women charged with murder after strangling a man in a car in Sofia, one of them is a diplomat with 30 years of experience

The Sofia City Court is expected to schedule a preliminary hearing for the case.

According to the indictment, as of January 18, 2024, the two women were living together in Sofia with Gabriela's two minor children.

The victim, Peyo Peev, was married to Slavova and was the father of her older child. The two had met in 2016 and had a short-lived relationship, which ended before the birth of their child in 2017.

In 2023, while pregnant by another man, Gabriela Slavova decided to enter into a fictitious marriage with Peev. She misled him by claiming she was starting a new job that required her to be married, and promised they would divorce immediately after. Peev agreed, and became the legal father of her second child.

On January 7, 2024, following a conflict earlier that day between the victim and the accused, Peev went to the women's home to talk with Gabriela. She was unusually friendly and brought him two cups of hot chocolate containing an unidentified substance. After drinking the contents, Peev became extremely dizzy and weak. The next day, he continued to feel unwell and had a headache, sharing this with his family and lawyer.

By January 2024, Peev was determined to have his marriage with Slavova dissolved and was prepared to testify in court in favour of the biological father of her second child, who was seeking to establish paternity. Furthermore, Peev refused to sign documents titled "Witness Testimony," which had been pre-prepared by the two accused women and which they wanted to use in the civil case.

Peev's behaviour was unexpected by the two accused and conflicted with their objective in the civil case, which was to maintain the claim that Peev was the father of Gabriela's second child. As a result, the two women decided to murder Peyo Peev and arranged how to do it.

On January 18, 2024, at around 9:00 PM, Slavova arranged to meet with Peev. She insisted that he park in a dark parking lot across from her building, claiming it was inconvenient because of the neighbours. Peev drove to the location, with his father, worried about his son, following him in his own car.

Peev arrived at the designated address at the agreed time. He rolled down the window of the front right door, where Gabriela stood, and she urged him to drive further into the dark part of the parking lot. Suspicious of her intentions, he refused. At that moment, Krasimira Trifonova appeared in front of his car. Upon seeing her, Peev began reversing, as their prior agreement had been to speak only with Gabriela regarding their divorce, and her mother's appearance made him suspicious. He backed up slowly for about three meters, speaking with his wife through the lowered window. Gabriela convinced him to stop, and she got into the front passenger seat. Following her instructions, Peev drove toward the inner part of the parking lot, where he briefly halted the vehicle. At that moment, Trifonova opened the back door and got into the rear seat, directly behind the victim. She grabbed Peev by the neck with both hands and began strangling him, while at the same time, Slavova, sitting to his right, began covering his nose and mouth with her hands. Despite this, Peev managed to move the car slightly and shifted a few meters into a lit area within the reach of a camera near the building. In an attempt to free himself from the two women, Peev leaned forward toward the steering wheel, but Gabriela pressed her torso against his and continued to suffocate him. Using an unidentified object, such as a cable or belt, Trifonova continued to press Peev's neck against the seat. The two women continued their actions for several minutes, ultimately killing the 44-year-old man.

In the meantime, Peev’s father lost sight of his son and began driving around to search for him, but without success.

After the murder, Gabriela Slavova managed to move between the body and the steering wheel. She shifted the car into reverse and drove it to the inner, darker part of the parking lot. Together, the two women dragged the victim's body to the front right seat.

Slavova took Peev's cell phone, went up to her apartment, and began chatting on Viber between the victim's phone number and her own phone number, even responding to his father from his phone.

Soon after, Slavova handed the phone to her mother, to prevent it from being found in their home. Krasimira Trifonova then drove off in the victim's car, along with the body and his phone, to a secluded spot in the Vitosha Nature Park. She poured flammable liquid over the body and set it on fire, then closed the car doors, leaving the key in the ignition, and left the scene, going to spend the night with a friend.

In the meantime, the defendant, Gabriela Slavova, continued to simulate communication using the victim’s phone, and Peev’s father filed a report with the police.