Stefanie Pieper

Stefanie Pieper was an Austrian beauty, fashion and cosmetics influencer and makeup artist from Graz who built a following of tens of thousands on Instagram with content about makeup, fashion and, at times, singing. She worked in the beauty industry as a makeup artist and was known online under the handle badgalfani, where she posted tutorials, product reviews and lifestyle content aimed largely at a young Austrian and German-speaking audience. Within that world she was a familiar, well-liked figure rather than a global celebrity, the kind of creator whose fans felt they knew her personally through years of videos and posts.

Her story became international news for tragic reasons. In the early hours of Sunday, November 23, 2025, Pieper left a night out in central Graz and, according to Austrian media, sent a friend a message describing a frightening figure she had noticed nearby. She was never heard from again after that. When she failed to appear for a scheduled work commitment later that day, a colleague reported her missing. Police who went to her Graz apartment reportedly found bloodstains near the doorframe, and investigators quickly said they suspected a violent crime rather than a voluntary disappearance.

The case moved fast. Her ex-boyfriend, identified in reporting only as Patrik M. (also rendered Patrick M. or Patrik Meglič in various outlets), a 31-year-old man, was arrested in neighboring Slovenia after his car was found burned out, a detail police believed pointed to an attempt to destroy evidence. He was extradited back to Austria and held in Graz-Jakomini prison. According to Austrian and Swiss outlets that covered the case closely, he confessed to strangling Pieper, placing her body inside a suitcase and burying it in a forest in Slovenia, and he subsequently led investigators to the site.

Her body was recovered from the buried suitcase on or around Saturday, November 29, 2025, roughly a week after she vanished, and was transferred to Graz for autopsy. Later reporting on the forensic findings added a disturbing detail: prosecutors said it was entirely possible that Pieper had still been alive when she was sealed inside the suitcase, meaning her actual cause of death may involve suffocation in addition to, or instead of, strangulation. As of this writing the full forensic picture and the final charges against her ex-boyfriend have not been conclusively confirmed in public reporting, and this page will be updated as facts are established in court.

The case drew heavy coverage across Austrian, German, Swiss and international outlets, in part because of the disturbing manner of her death and in part because Pieper was already a known face online, with a community of followers who had watched her build a public identity over several years. Tributes from followers and figures in the Austrian beauty and influencer scene circulated widely on social media once her death was confirmed, expressing shock and grief over the loss of a young woman whose public persona had been upbeat and warm. Details of a funeral or memorial service, if one is planned, had not been made public at the time of writing.