The first two killings
In January 1998, Mlađan, then 16, killed 16-year-old Elizabeta Šubić in Petrinja. About a month later he killed 63-year-old pensioner Petar Jančić in the Sisak area. Croatian public broadcaster HRT and later national reporting consistently identify those two killings as the crimes for which he was convicted while still a juvenile.
He also faced responsibility for other serious offenses from the same period, including robbery and an attempted killing. Because he was a minor, the court imposed the maximum juvenile-prison sentence then available: ten years. The later history of the case became controversial because he received temporary weekend leave while serving that sentence.
The 2002 weekend release
In February 2002, during a weekend release, Mlađan did not return to prison. He obtained a firearm and committed another bank robbery in Zagreb. Police officer Milenko Vranjković was killed while attempting to apprehend him.
Mlađan then entered a family home and held three people hostage. After hours of negotiations with police, the hostage crisis ended with his surrender. Contemporary and retrospective Croatian reporting treats the police officer's murder, the robbery and the hostage-taking as part of the same 2002 criminal episode rather than as separate unrelated case files.
Convictions and aggregate sentence
The earlier juvenile case and the 2002 crimes ultimately produced a long aggregate sentence. Croatian media reporting in 2026, including HRT, Jutarnji list and tportal, described Mlađan as serving a 27-year prison term for the three killings and associated crimes, with the sentence expected to expire in May 2027.
Older reports sometimes describe individual component sentences or earlier totals differently. This dossier therefore uses the current 2026 description of the sentence actually being served rather than combining historical sentence figures into a new calculation.
A separate prosecution in 2026
In 2025 a new indictment was confirmed alleging that, while imprisoned, Mlađan asked another prisoner to kidnap and kill people he believed had harmed him in earlier proceedings. Trial hearings were underway at the Varaždin County Court in 2026.
Those allegations are legally distinct from the adjudicated 1998–2002 crimes. Mlađan denied the new charges. Crime by Region therefore records the new case only as current procedural context and does not add alleged future victims, motives or planned acts to the established murder count.
Timeline
January 1998: 16-year-old Elizabeta Šubić is killed in Petrinja.
February 1998: 63-year-old Petar Jančić is killed in the Sisak area.
1998: Mlađan is convicted as a juvenile and receives a ten-year juvenile-prison sentence for the murders and additional offenses.
February 2002: while on weekend release, Mlađan fails to return, robs a bank, kills police officer Milenko Vranjković and later holds a family hostage before surrendering.
2002 onward: he is convicted for the later crimes; subsequent sentence aggregation results in the long prison term still being served in 2026.
2025–2026: a separate indictment alleging solicitation of kidnappings and killings from prison is confirmed and proceeds to trial. No conviction in that newer case is assumed here.
Current classification
The Srđan Mlađan Murder Series is classified Solved / Adjudicated for the three killings and associated crimes committed in 1998 and 2002. That classification does not extend to the separate 2026 prosecution, which remains pending.
Sources
- HRT / Hina — March 4, 2026: start of the Varaždin trial and summary of the 1998 convictions
- HRT — March 31, 2026: summary of the three adjudicated killings and pending allegations
- Jutarnji list — May 19, 2026: current 27-year sentence and pending trial
- tportal — March 4, 2026: sentence expiry and crime chronology
- Courts of the Republic of Croatia — public hearing calendar documenting the 2026 Varaždin proceedings