Jasmina Dominic: Body of Croatian woman missing for 18 years found in sister's freezer

Police suspect Jasmina Dominic was murdered then stashed inside the freezer

Jasmina Dominic was reported missing in 2005 but was last seen in 2000

(AP)

The body of a Croatian woman who disappeared in 2000 has been found more than 18 years later in her sister’s freezer.

Jasmina Dominic was last seen at the turn of the millennium when she was 23 years old.

Her family took until 2005 to report her missing and had previously told police she was living overseas.

But police officers found her remains inside a freezer in the hallway of the family home in the village of Pavlovec, northeast of the capital Zagreb, on Saturday.

Officers have arrested Ms Dominic’s sister, 45-year-old Smiljana Srnec, and ordered an post-mortem be carried out on the body.

Although the results of the autopsy are not yet known, police said they believed Ms Dominic had been murdered.

A police spokesman said the family had hoodwinked detectives investigating the disappearance more than a decade earlier.

“They turned us in other directions,” he said. “I’ve never had a case like this.”

“We checked the house [at the time] ... but didn’t have information anything could have happened at home.”

A missing persons poster Croatian police produced when Jasmina Dominic was finally reported missing

(AP)

The case has shocked Croatia, with many wondering how it was possible that the family had lived for so long with a body hidden in the house.

Ms Dominic’s father, who died several years ago, reportedly said in 2011 his daughter had told him in 2000 she was going to work on a cruise ship and then live in Paris.