Vienna, Austria – Estibaliz Carranza, a 34-year-old Mexican-Spanish woman is being dubbed the “Ice Lady” by Austrian media for shooting, sawing up, and freezing both her husband and her lover before burying them in the cellar of her store.
The “Ice Lady” confessed to the killings and mutilations in court Monday, saying that both men had “demeaned” her. Her husband had apparently yelled at her and mocked her poor German while her lover was unfaithful.
NBC News reports that both men were shot with a .22 caliber Beretta pistol, chopped up with a chain saw, frozen in the ice cream parlor that Carranza owned, and ultimately buried in the basement.Her demeanor in court was described by prosecutor Petra Freh as “ice-cold,” also calling the Ice Lady a “ticking time bomb.”
“It’s clear that the defendant has two faces,”said Freh, who warned that the Ice Lady would kill again if granted her freedom.
Carranza is represented by celebrity defense lawyer Rudolf Mayer, who unsuccessfully defended Austria’s most notorious living criminal, Josef Fritzl , in 2009. He said that with proper treatment, the Ice Lady’s threat to society would diminish “to zero,” and warned the jury against listening to the negative press coverage of Carranza’s murders.
“The defense is determined … that the jury do not accept the picture that been has given of her as ice-cold, unfeeling, unscrupulous, capable of anything, but rather that they recognize what is behind this facade,” he told journalists.
Carranza recalled her crimes, arguing that she was “so furious” at the two men and pushed by them to her breaking point. She ambushed her husband while he was sitting at his computer and shot her lover with the same pistol in bed after the two got into a fight over his alleged infidelity.
The Ice Lady was extradited from Italy, two months pregnant by yet another lover, in order to face charges in Austria.
The trial will run until Thursday.