Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala ran a tiny Vienna ice-cream shop with a big secret beneath the floor. In 2011, workers opened the cellar and found dismembered remains sealed in concrete—later traced to her ex-husband and ex-boyfriend. She confessed to both killings, fled to Italy, and was extradited to Austria. In 2012, a Vienna jury gave her life and ordered indefinite detention in a psychiatric institution for “mentally abnormal offenders.”
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala
Last updated: November 14, 2025
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala | The Ice-Cream Killer
- Full Name: Goidsargi Estíbaliz Carranza Zabala
- Aliases: “Eislady” / “Ice Cream Killer” (Austrian press)
- Born: 1978 (San Sebastián/Donostia, Spain) (year per major press summaries)
- Residence at Crimes: Vienna, Austria (12th District – Meidling)
- Occupation(s): Ice-cream shop owner (“Schleckeria”)
- Crimes: Two counts of murder (ex-husband Holger Holz, 2008; ex-boyfriend Manfred Hinterberger, 2010) with post-homicide dismemberment and concealment in the shop’s cellar (concrete)
- Arrested: June 2011 in Italy; extradited to Austria
- Convicted/Sentenced: Life imprisonment + commitment to a secure psychiatric institution (Vienna, Nov 2012)
- Current Status: Serving life under Austria’s Maßnahmenvollzug (detention for mentally abnormal offenders); later housed at Asten facility (Upper Austria) per justice reports/press coverage.
Classification & Characteristics
Classification. Double intimate-partner homicide with post-homicide dismemberment and concealment in a commercial/domestic setting. Both victims—an ex-husband (2008) and an ex-boyfriend (2010)—were killed in private spaces linked to Carranza, then dismembered and encased in concrete in the cellar beneath her Vienna ice-cream shop. The case features organized post-offense behavior (use of a chainsaw, concrete sealing, continued operation of the shop above the burial site), flight across a national border after discovery, and subsequent extradition and conviction.
Characteristics. Pattern of control and jealousy within intimate relationships; access to and use of a firearm; high instrumental planning after the killings (clean-up, segmented concealment, maintaining a normal façade). Forensic indicators show methodical body handling and long-term concealment intended to delay discovery. Sentencing combined life imprisonment with indefinite psychiatric commitment under Austria’s Maßnahmenvollzug (detention for mentally abnormal offenders), reflecting the court’s assessment of ongoing risk and treatment needs.
Case Summary | Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala
Carranza ran Schleckeria, a small ice-cream shop in Vienna’s 12th district. Prosecutors said she shot and killed her ex-husband (2008) and, two years later, her ex-boyfriend (2010), dismembered both with a chainsaw and encased the remains in concrete tubs and cellar niches beneath the parlor. In June 2011, workers renovating the property discovered human remains; Carranza fled to Italy and was arrested and extradited. In 2012, the Landesgericht Wien (Vienna Regional Court) sentenced her to life imprisonment and ordered commitment to a secure psychiatric institution.
Timeline of Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala Murder Case →
- 2008 – Ex-husband Holger Holz shot and killed; body later dismembered and hidden in shop cellar.
- 2010 – Ex-boyfriend Manfred Hinterberger shot and killed; likewise dismembered and concealed.
- June 2011 – Construction workers uncover human remains in the basement of Carranza’s Schleckeria ice-cream parlor (Vienna-Meidling). She flees Austria and is arrested in Italy soon after.
- Nov 2012 – Vienna jury: life sentence + indefinite psychiatric detention for two murders.
- 2017 → Custody continued under Austria’s measures regime; media note transfer to JA Asten (Upper Austria)
→ Quick Answers
- Who? Goidsargi Estíbaliz Carranza Zabala, Vienna ice-cream shop owner nicknamed the “Eislady.”
- What? Two murders (ex-husband; ex-boyfriend), dismemberment, and concealment in her shop’s cellar.
- Where? Meidling (12th district), Vienna, Austria—Schleckeria ice-cream shop.
- When? Killings in 2008 and 2010; remains discovered June 2011; life sentence Nov 2012.
- Result? Life imprisonment + indefinite psychiatric detention (Maßnahmenvollzug).
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala | The Ice-Cream Killer
🕊️Victims of Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala
- Holger Holz (ex-husband) – In 2008, Holz was shot inside Carranza’s domestic sphere, then dismembered and concealed in concrete in the cellar beneath her Vienna ice-cream shop. His remains stayed hidden for years until renovation work in 2011 exposed the concrete-filled niches, allowing forensic examiners to identify him and reconstruct the timeline that opened the case.
- Manfred Hinterberger (ex-boyfriend) – Two years later, in 2010, Hinterberger was shot and subjected to the same methodical post-homicide handling – dismemberment and encasement in concrete below the shop. His remains were uncovered alongside Holz’s during the 2011 discovery, and forensic analysis linked both killings to Carranza’s controlled, organized concealment.
FAQ→
The remains were concealed in concrete and stored in the cellar beneath an operating business; discovery came by chance during renovation in 2011.
Yes – contemporaneous reporting and trial coverage describe a chainsaw and concrete encasement to conceal both bodies.
No; the court imposed life plus commitment to a psychiatric institution under Austria’s “mentally abnormal offenders” framework (not a full insanity acquittal).
No. Austria abolished the death penalty decades ago (Article 85, Federal Constitutional Law).
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala | The Ice-Cream Killer
👉The Story
The “Schleckeria” Shop
In 2012, Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala was sentenced to life behind bars for the dismemberment murders of her ex-husband and her one-time lover on separate occasions. She shot them both in the head, carved up their bodies, stored their parts in a freezer and buried their remains under the concrete floor of her shop. She then hung air fresheners to hide the smell of their rotting corpses.
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala, dubbed the “Ice Cream Killer” by the Austrian media, confessed in court to murdering two men and setting their sawed-up body parts in cement in the cellar of her ice-cream parlor.
Zabala, who has joint Spanish-Mexican citizenship, told the hearing in Vienna how she shot and sliced up, with a chain saw, her ex-husband in 2008 and then in 2010, her new partner.
At first freezing the body parts in the apartment, that also served as a store room for the ice-cream parlor, Esti, as she was called, concealed them in chunks of concrete that she mixed up in the cellar of her “Schleckeria” shop in the Austrian capital.
Ex Husband Holger Holz
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala shot her ex-husband, Holger Holz, who she said was violent, lazy and a bully who refused to move out of their home after their divorce, at close range with a .22-calibre Beretta pistol three times in the head as he worked on his computer.
“I never thought I would be able to go through with it,” Carranza told the packed courtroom. “It was 3 pm. There were children outside. It was nice weather, someone must have heard. I thought the police would come.
“Then my mobile phone rang. It was the ice-cream parlor, saying they needed me to come over.”
After several failed attempts to dispose of the corpse, including the “crazy idea” of setting fire to it, Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala finally decided to resort to a chain saw.
“I cleaned and cleaned in the days afterwards,” she told the court.
A New Relationship
In 2010, Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala was dating a new man, Manfred Hinterberger. But her new relationship, with the ice-cream salesman some 20 years her senior, quickly deteriorated until she felt “like she was in a prison. Like my head was in a plastic bag”, she’d say.
One November night, the two got into a drunken argument. Carranza believed Manfred was cheating on her, though there has been no proof to substantiate her suspicion.
“He turned his face to the wall and started snoring,” Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala told the court. “I was so angry. I had the gun under the mattress. I took it out, loaded and shot.”
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala killed Manfred with the same gun she had used to murder Holz, then dismembered his body in the same way.
In the morning she asked him – the corpse- to forgive her for what she had done, then she proceeded to dispose of the body.
A New Man, Baby and Future for Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala
In June of 2011, plumbers stumbled upon the remains of both victims as they were doing work in the cellar of Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala’s ice cream shop.
She knew what they where about to discover and took off.
After going on the run to Italy, Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala was captured several days afterwards and later extradited.
When arrested, Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala was two-months pregnant by yet another man, whom she married in prison in March. The baby was born in January but the boy, called Roland after the father, was immediately taken away from her and is now reportedly being looked after by his parents in Barcelona.
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala has been diagnosed with “serious mental and psychological abnormalities,” the Metro reports, but she was nonetheless ruled fit to stand trial.
A court psychologist predicted that Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala has a “one in three” chance of committing another murder if she is ever set free. And added that Carranza, now in a unit for the “mentally abnormal,” was dangerous and was like a “princess who just wants to be ‘rescued’ by a man.
After her conviction, Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala was incarcerated at a women’s prison in Schwarzenau, Lower Austria, but would later be moved to a “special” all-male penitentiary in Asten, Upper Austria.
Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala, the Ice Cream Killer, will be the first female prisoner to be housed at the state-of-the-art facility, which currently holds 91 men.
source credit: murderpedia
Legal Status | Paper Trail | Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala
- Discovery & Arrest (June 2011): During cellar renovations at a Meidling (Vienna) property housing her ice-cream shop, workers found concreted remains; police quickly focused on the missing shop owner, Estíbaliz Carranza. Early coverage and the running case chronology: ORF Wien – “Leichen im Keller – eine Chronologie” and contemporaneous reports from Die Presse: Police seek ice-cream seller and DNA confirms victim ID. A local brief on cause of death (gunshot): vienna.at.
- Indictment & Trial (2012): Formal indictment summary (Sept 2012): Salzburger Nachrichten. Trial opened Nov. 19, 2012: AFP/Yahoo and Sowetan Live.
- Verdict & Sentence (Nov. 2012): Life sentence with confinement in a secure psychiatric institution (Maßnahmenvollzug): South China Morning Post (Nov. 24, 2012).
- Custody/Placement: Initial custody at Schwarzau; transfer reported in 2017 to the Forensic Center Asten (Upper Austria) once a women’s ward opened: Der Standard.
- Case background & official chronology: ORF’s case timeline and follow-ups, including “Betonleichen” dossier items and court/records references: ORF (chronology) and archived 2011 brief on police files: ORF news.
- No death penalty in Austria: Execution warrants do not apply. Austria abolished the death penalty in 1968; see Article 85 of the Federal Constitutional Law: RIS (Austrian Legal Information System) and overview (Amnesty): Amnesty – constitutional prohibitions.
- What “Maßnahmenvollzug” means: Official Justice Ministry explainer on the special detention/measurement regime for mentally disordered offenders: justiz.gv.at – Maßnahmenvollzug.
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📚 Additional Resources
- ORF Vienna dossier & updates: ORF – “Leichen im Keller” chronology, ORF 2011 brief, Shop sale follow-up.
- Die Presse early reports: Search for owner, Victim identified.
- Salzburger Nachrichten indictment note: Anklage erhoben.
- International trial & sentence coverage: AFP/Yahoo, SCMP.
- Transfer/placement: Der Standard – Asten.
- Legal/constitutional context: RIS – B-VG Art. 85, Amnesty overview, Justiz – Maßnahmenvollzug.
📚 Further Reading / Watching
- Memoir / case account (German): Meine zwei Leben: Die wahre Geschichte der Eislady – Estibaliz Carranza & Martina Prewein (print/Kindle). Amazon: Paperback/Hardcover • Kindle.
- Documentary (ORF): True Stories – Die Eislady: Gedanken einer Mörderin (program page/listings): ORF program • Episode listing • Recent ORF press note: OTS (Nov. 2025).
- Background features: The Local – memoir coverage.
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👉 This page is part of the WickedWe True Crime Archive – a resource for researchers, students, and true crime enthusiasts seeking verified facts, case records, and deeper historical context. [Disclaimer→ WickedWe.com is an educational/entertainment column only. No graphic imagery. Victim-respect policy. Nothing herein is legal advice.]
Beyond the Gavel
Roll Card | Snapshot
- Name: Goidsargi Estíbaliz Carranza Zabala
- Jurisdiction: Vienna (Austria)
- Status: Life sentence with confinement under Maßnahmenvollzug (secure psychiatric detention). Transfer to Justizanstalt Asten reported in 2017: Der Standard.
- Death Penalty: Not applicable in Austria (abolished; B-VG Art. 85): RIS.
- Case Chronology (official media): ORF timeline.
Docket Map | Proceedings
- June 2011 – Discovery of remains during cellar works (Meidling, Vienna): ORF chronology; early reporting: vienna.at, Die Presse.
- Sept 2012 – Indictment filed (Vienna): Salzburger Nachrichten.
- Nov 2012 – Trial opens; confession reported; life sentence with placement in psychiatric measure: AFP/Yahoo, SCMP.
- 2017 – Transfer to Asten forensic center (women’s ward newly opened): Der Standard.
- Ongoing – Custody under Maßnahmenvollzug: official explainer: justiz.gv.at.
Stay / Warrant / Window
- Not applicable (Austria): No execution scheduling; Austria abolished capital punishment in 1968. Legal basis: B-VG Article 85 – “Die Todesstrafe ist abgeschafft.” RIS • Policy overview: Amnesty PDF.
Case File Extras | What the Record Shows
- Cellar discovery & early police findings (2011), incl. gunshot cause of death and “concrete” concealment: ORF chronology, ORF police-file brief, vienna.at.
- Shop context (“Schleckeria”) and sale after the discovery: ORF – shop sold.
- Trial & sentence summaries (Nov. 2012): AFP/Yahoo, SCMP.
- Placement & regime: transfer reports and official measure regime explainer: Der Standard, justiz.gv.at.
Source Pack
- Austrian legal framework: RIS – Federal Constitutional Law (B-VG) Art. 85.
- Justice Ministry explainer (measures detention): justiz.gv.at – Maßnahmenvollzug.
- Public-service broadcaster dossier & chronology: ORF Wien – case chronology (aggregates official steps, hearing dates, and court outcomes).
- Indictment report (newswire-level summary): Salzburger Nachrichten – indictment.
- Trial open/coverage: AFP/Yahoo, SCMP sentence.
- Placement note: Der Standard – transfer to Asten.
