On the 19th of October 1984 Father Jerzy was invited to take part in the Workmen Fellowship prayer meeting in the parish church of Polish Saint Brother-Martyrs in Bydgoszcz. He said mass which was to be the last one in his life. Later on he participated in reflections on the painful mysteries of the Rosary. The last one ended with the following prayer: ”Let us pray to be free from fear and fright but first of all from desire of revenge and violence.”

Despite the host’s suggestions to stay overnight, Father Jerzy decided to return to Warsaw on the same evening.

On the way to Toruń near Górsk Security Service (SB) officials wearing uniforms of traffic policemen stopped his car, driven by Waldemar Chrostowski. They forced the driver to hand them the car keys and took him to the police car, where he was handcuffed. Two SB officials, Grzegorz Piotrowski and Waldemar Chmielewski, made Father Jerzy step out of the car. They stunned him by hitting hard on his head, gagged and threw him into the boot. After they set off, Waldemar Chrostowski managed to fling himself out of the moving car and immediately sought help.

The description of events that took place afterwards is based exclusively on the results of postmortem section and the kidnappers’ testimony. We are not certain if the report is reliable. Yet, the files of the Toruń trial, including the justification of the verdict, are the only source of information we have. As they drove on, SB officials realised the car was malfunctioning and at the same time Father Jerzy was trying to set himself free. They stopped the car by the forest in the vicinity of the Kosmos hotel on the outskirts of Toruń. Father Jerzy managed to get out of the boot and started running away. Soon the kidnappers caught the priest and beat him so hard he passed out. Unconscious, he was thrown back into the boot.

Passing through Toruń, the SB officials drove in the direction of Włocławek. They parked near a petrol station for a short while. Since Father Jerzy kept trying to set himself free, the kidnappers stopped the car on a side road. They hit him with sticks, threatened with gun and after he lost consciousness again they bound his arms and legs. They drove on covering a distance of a few miles, and then stopped the car. Once again they beat the priest and gagged him, which made his breathing difficult. They tied a bag of stones to his legs and later (Leszek Pękala) put a noose round Father Jerzy’s neck. Its ends, which lay across his backbone, were tied to the bent legs. Whenever he tried to straighten the legs, the noose tightened on his neck. At that time Father Jerzy was still alive.
The kidnappers were wondering what to do next. Grzegorz Piotrowski decided they would drown him near the Włocławek dam. They threw the body into the water without checking if he victim was still alive or dead. Doctors could not settle if Father Jerzy had been drowned or had passed away before.

On the 20th of October the evening TV news gave information about Father Jerzy’s kidnapping. Many people gathered to pray in the church of St. Stanislaw Kostka. On the same day, evening mass was celebrated and the congregation prayed for Father Jerzy’s rescue. Fervent prayers continued in the church night and day until the tragic truth was disclosed and the funeral service carried out.

On the 30th of October the evening TV news announced that the corpse of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko was discovered in the Vistula River.

The coffin containing the body was transported to the church of St. Stanislaw Kostka in Warsaw on the 2nd of November in the evening. The following day the funeral ceremony took place. It gathered a few hundred thousand Poles.

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The trial of Father Jerzy’s killers started on the 27th of December 1984 in Toruń. It soon turned out that the authorities had stage-managed its course carefully. With the judges’ permission, it often switched into a trial against the priest. Slanders were told. The court allowed for the memory of the victim to be ruthlessly sullied. The behaviour of Grzegorz Piotrowski, the key defendant, was especially rude. He did not show the slightest sign of repentance.

The court pronounced its verdict. Grzegorz Piotrowski and Adam Pietruszka were sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment, Leszek Pękala to 15 years and Waldemar Chmielewski to 14 years. The trial failed to answer the most important question, namely, who gave the orders to murder Father Jerzy? The answer is still unknown.

All the killers have already left prison. They have changed their surnames, appearance and address.