The Murders of Silvana and Marin Šunjerga

Silvana and Marin Šunjerga

Silvana and Marin Šunjerga lived in Čista Velika, in Croatia's Šibenik-Knin region. Marin was a police officer. Their deaths became one of the country's most closely followed family-murder prosecutions of the decade.

The victims are the focus of this file. Graphic descriptions are deliberately omitted; they are not necessary to understand the sequence of events or the final judicial findings.

March 25, 2017

Croatian courts found that Tin Šunjerga intentionally killed both parents on March 25, 2017. His mother Silvana was killed during a vehicle journey in the Čista Velika area. He later returned to the family property, where his father Marin was killed.

At trial, the court treated both killings as aggravated murders committed in a treacherous manner and out of ruthless revenge. Those terms reflect the legal findings in the Croatian judgments; this page does not embellish them with speculative motive or psychological claims beyond what the courts recorded.

The friend's separate offense

Ivan Škarić, a young friend who had been present during part of the day's events, was prosecuted for a different offense: failing to report the crime. He received a one-year suspended sentence with a three-year probation period.

That conviction must not be confused with participation in the murders. This archive does not identify Škarić as a co-killer or co-author because the cited judgments did not convict him of either homicide.

First-instance judgment

On May 17, 2018, the County Court in Zadar found Tin Šunjerga guilty and imposed individual terms for the two aggravated murders, combining them into an aggregate sentence of 40 years of long-term imprisonment.

The judgment was not yet final. Both the defendant and prosecution retained appellate rights, and the punishment would change twice before the process ended.

Second-instance reduction to 35 years

On March 21, 2019, Croatia's Supreme Court, acting as the second-instance court, partially accepted Šunjerga's appeal and reduced the aggregate term from 40 to 35 years. The court said the first punishment placed excessive emphasis on retribution and reassessed the mitigating and aggravating circumstances.

Because the case involved long-term imprisonment, another appeal remained legally available. The 35-year term was therefore not the final endpoint.

Third-instance final sentence

On October 16, 2019, the Supreme Court decided the case at third instance. It rejected the defendant's appeal, accepted the state prosecutor's appeal and restored the aggregate sentence to 40 years of long-term imprisonment. Reporting based on the Supreme Court announcement stated that no further appeal was permitted.

That third-instance judgment is the operative result used by Crime by Region. Earlier sentences are included because they explain the judicial path, but they are not presented as the current punishment.

Current legal status

Tin Šunjerga stands finally convicted of the aggravated murders of both parents. There is no unresolved question about whether the criminal proceeding produced a final adjudicated perpetrator and sentence.

The case illustrates why an archive should not stop at a first headline: a 40-year first-instance judgment became 35 years on appeal and then returned to 40 years after the last available appellate review.

Related Croatia case files

For another Croatian family or intimate-relationship killing with a final appellate judgment, see The Murder of Kristina Krupljan. For a case in which the prosecution failed to produce a final murder conviction, see The Zec Family Murders.

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