An ice cream shop in Vienna soon turned into a murder scene as two unsuspecting plumbers discovered something horrifying when doing construction. This is the tale of the Ice Lady.
Plumbing To Do
When an ice cream shop in Vienna needed some maintenance, two plumbers were assuming it would be a routine job. They assumed they’d only be replacing old pipes but uncovered something dark.
The Vienna Shop
This shop was pretty popular among the local crowd. It was even a place that the plumbers have gone to in their free time. They knew that it was just a quiet ice cream shop owned by an even quieter woman who lived above it.
The Basement
They needed to break up the basement floor in order to get to the old pipes. This was going to be a costly fix, but extremely necessary. They weren’t expecting to find what they did…
Uneven Cement
The part of the floor they were breaking up was weirdly soft… As if it had already been broken up. They weren’t sure the history of the place, so they continued onward. It was weird, but not totally uncommon.
Ice Cream Freezers
They eventually got to the foundation where they found the weirdest thing… Old ice cream freezers. Their curiosity peaked and they opened them up only to find human remains.
What Were They Doing There?
The owner of the shop was immediately the suspect. Who else would have access to this part of the basement? When police went to find her, she was already on the run in Italy…
Estabaliz
While on the run, things got tricky. Estibaliz found out that she was pregnant by a man not involved with the murders. When she was arrested, she immediately confessed to her knowledge about the murders and told them that she was pregnant. This was sticky…
The Baby
As they got a clearer timeline, they figured out that the baby would be born after the trial. The authorities said that the baby will be given to her parents as their full guardians so they wouldn’t have to grow up in jail… If that were the case.
“The Ice Lady”
Estibaliz Carranza was the ice cream shop owner, but most know her as the Ice Lady. She was being charged for murdering her ex-husband and ex-boyfriend, dismembering them, and hiding them in that freezer.
Why She Killed the Ex-Husband
Carranza and her husband were on the road to divorce. She had described him as lazy and mean. Unfortunately, neither of them were able to live without the financial support of the other due to the failing ice cream shop.
Bad Husband
She said that he never did anything around the house and would constantly verbally abuse her. Eventually, she reached her boiling point… She admitted to shooting him to death.
How It Went Down
One afternoon, she decided to take a gun to the back of her ex-husbands head while he sat at the computer. She said that it was a quick decision to make because she knew if she lingered behind him or hesitated, he would have been alerted to her and the gun…
Acting Natural
Right after the murder, she said that her cell phone rang. It was an employee downstairs who needed help with something in the shop. She decided to leave the body and go down and help with hesitation…
Covering it Up
She was able to handle the business at the shop before heading back to more business upstairs. She dismembered the body with a chainsaw. In order to mask the sound, she used an ice cream machine in the background that was even louder. She put his remains in the icebox and buried it in the floor of the basement.
Cleaning
She needed to keep a low profile and she made sure that her apartment was clean. “I cleaned and cleaned in the days afterward,†she explained to the police. She needed it to be spotless.
Lived Her Life Normally
After everything was said and done, she basically went back to living her life as normal. She played innocent when friends of her ex came looking for him. She didn’t care at all about his loved ones…
Her Next Victim
Manfred Hinterberger was Caranza’s second victim. They hadn’t been dating for long and ended up having a very violent argument about an affair. Caranza decided to put a permanent end to the situation…
Their Relationship Wasn’t Perfect
The two absolutely had a toxic relationship. Friends and family were not supportive of it as Caranza and Hinterberger were both horrible for each other. Unfortunately, Caranza couldn’t simply just ‘break up’ with him.
Shooting Lessons
It became apparent that she had planned his murder for some time… Even before their fight. Caranza had taken shooting lessons and a course in mixing concrete at a community college prior to his murder.
She Strikes Again
The Next Body
The next day, Carranza said that she got up, had some coffee, and then went to take care of his reminds. She used the same chainsaw.
She is Two Sided
Prosecutor Petra Frey described Estibaliz Carranza as a “highly dangerous woman ready to do anything.” She went on to say that Carranza had two faces that she would show to the judge. Carranza would flip-flop between a well-behaved and polite individual, but it was very obvious who she really was: a cold-blooded killer.
Remorse?
“I can’t say anything other than that I am sorry that I took Holger and Manfred’s lives,” she announced to the court. But, was that the truth?
Why She Feels Bad
“I killed two men, whom I once loved. There is no way of glossing this over, I robbed two mothers of their sons. I believed I had to serve men, no matter how they behaved.” About leaving her boyfriend, she also claimed, “I couldn’t say no. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t get free of him.”
Her Sentence
After the trial was complete, Carranza was sentenced to life in a psychiatric unit. Staff psychiatrists described her as, “a princess who wants to be rescued by a prince.” She got a new boyfriend as well, whom she planned to marry.
Her First-Hand Account
In 2014, Carranza penned a memoir titled: “My Two Lives: The True Story of the Ice Lady.” She does a deep dive into her feelings about being in abusive relationships with no way out. She tried to give herself a new name.
She Blames Herself
Estibaliz Carranza concludes that she blames herself for the abuse she encountered. She believes that she turned them into “lazy, sexually-demanding monsters… I believed I had to serve men, no matter how they behave,” she wrote in the memoirs. In 2017, Carranza’s prison life would change…
Moving Prisons
When she turned 38, she was transferred from the all-female prison in Austria to an all-male penitentiary in Upper Austria. The reasoning? Authorities felt she was too dangerous for the women’s prison…
Her Fate
Carranza was the first-ever female prisoner to be an inmate at the small facility. There are 91 other prisoners there with her. Hopefully, her days as the Ice Lady are over.