Michal Polchowski speaks after charges dropped over housemate’s murder

Michal Polchowski has spoken publicly about the murder of his housemate Stuart Everett, saying he did not know Everett had been killed despite being at their shared home during the period in which the crime took place.

Polchowski was arrested and charged in connection with Everett’s death. The allegations against him were later dropped after detectives established that Marcin Majerkiewicz had acted alone. Polchowski discussed the case in The Jigsaw Puzzle Murder, a two-part Paramount+ documentary available from 12 November.

Everett, 67, also known as Roman Ziemacki, lived in a house on Worsley Road in Winton, Salford, with Polchowski and Majerkiewicz. Polchowski said he spent much of the relevant week upstairs in his room and rarely went into the rest of the house, going down to the kitchen about once a day to make tea.

He recalled his disbelief when police arrived and told him someone had been murdered at the property. “I thought, if someone had been murdered here, I’d know about it,” he said. He suggested alcohol may have contributed to his not hearing anything, but presented that as his own explanation, not something he knew to have happened.

Majerkiewicz was found guilty of murder by a jury and sentenced in March 2025 to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 34 years. Mr Justice Cavanagh imposed the sentence. The killing and the investigation were also the subject of the new documentary.

The investigation traced the disposal of Everett’s remains to locations across Salford and north Manchester. Searches found remains at Kersal Dale, Linnyshaw Colliery Woods, Blackleach Country Park in Walkden, land off Chesterfield Close in Winton and Boggart Hole Clough in Blackley.

Detectives initially searched Kersal Dale for 12 days after the first discovery of remains, without finding further body parts. They later used phone data, bus journeys, cell-site information and CCTV to identify 19 locations where evidence and remains had been discarded.

A significant lead came from reviewing about 2,000 hours of CCTV. Footage showed Majerkiewicz walking towards woodland with a bag, changing hands and stopping to rest. Police had also recognised him getting on a bus and arrested him about a month after he was believed to have killed Everett. CCTV placed him near five locations where remains were found.

The documentary also examines how Majerkiewicz used Everett’s phone and interfered with his finances after the killing. Detective Chief Superintendent Lewis Hughes, who led the investigation, described the case as among the most complex and harrowing of his 23-year career with Greater Manchester Police.

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