The father of a murdered Miss Switzerland finalist discovered her decapitated head in a bin bag in her laundry room, while her two young children played in the next room.

Kristina Joksimovic, 38, was allegedly strangled, dismembered and then “pureed” by a blender, at her home near Basel. Her husband, named as Thomas in local media, is on trial.

The gruesome discovery was made on 13 February after her parents had become concerned for her welfare, and her father began searching the house after her husband repeatedly feigned ignorance as to her whereabouts.

It was during this search that he found his daughter’s gold hair visible from inside a bin bag, and discovered that she had been killed, a family friend told MailOnline.

Her parents had first questioned her disappearance after their grandchildren’s local nursery contacted them, to say that Ms Joksimovic had failed to collect them.

“For hours, he pretended as if nothing was wrong, chatting to her father and making dinner for everyone before tucking the children into their beds. Her father went to pick up her mother and returned to the house,” the friend said.

He reportedly ran from the garage “screaming” and asked a passer-by to contact the police, which led to his son-in-law’s arrest.

Swiss media, FM1 Today, reported that “according to the autopsy report, the body was dismembered in the laundry room with a jigsaw power tool, knife and secateurs”.

Several body parts were then reportedly “pureed” with a hand blender and dissolved in a chemical”.

An autopsy has given her cause of death as strangulation, while there had also been previous signs of blunt force trauma.

He had an appeal for release from custody denied by the Federal Court after reportedly confessing to killing the 2007 winner of Miss Northwest Switzerland, with whom he had two children.

An ongoing investigation found there were “concrete indications of mental illness” underpinning the case, with Thomas claiming that he had acted in self-defence.

Meanwhile, prosecutors claim that Thomas has shown “a lack of empathy and cold-bloodedness after killing his wife” and trying to cover it up.

Her friend said: “The last week, in particular, was really hard for us, her friends, after these awful details came out in court. Since she died, we have just been functioning and we have moments were all we can do is cry.”

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