Matej Čurko was born in 1968 in eastern Slovakia. He grew up in an ordinary household that broke apart early in his childhood; his parents divorced, and he and his brother were raised mainly by their mother and grandmother. Described as an intelligent but solitary child, he displayed early social detachment and difficulty respecting authority. At school he excelled in mathematics and technology and later attended a program for gifted students. Despite his intellect, teachers regarded him as a provocateur, showing behavioral rebellion and limited empathy.

At age 13, Čurko stabbed his neighbor’s 11‑year‑old son, causing serious injury. He was placed in a psychiatric facility in Košice for over a month and later treated at the Children’s Psychiatric Hospital in Hraničné, where doctors recorded an IQ of 116 and early signs of schizoid tendencies. His later life followed an outwardly conventional trajectory: he completed a vocational school, served as a technical specialist in the army, and worked as head of IT for an insurance company in Košice. Colleagues described him as technically brilliant yet emotionally cold and withdrawn.

In private, Čurko collected firearms and practiced martial arts, while pursuing obsessive complaints to public prosecutors over minor legal issues and bureaucratic grievances. He showed little interest in romantic relationships and only married around age 30, fathering two children. Later psychological analyses suggested traits of psychopathy, necrophilic sadism, and schizoid personality disorder—marked by emotional detachment, weak empathy, and an intellectualized view of death and human suffering.

Between 2009 and 2011, Matej Čurko engaged in a series of online interactions on suicide forums under the pseudonym "Orion218." He targeted individuals expressing suicidal ideation, offering them a "painless death." His modus operandi involved meeting victims in secluded forest areas near Kysak, Slovakia, where he would administer sedatives before fatally stabbing them in the heart.

Investigations confirmed two victims: Elena Gudjaková, 30, who disappeared on June 23, 2010, and Lucia Uchnárová, 20, who went missing on September 3, 2010. Both women had documented mental health issues and had communicated with Čurko online. Their remains were discovered in shallow graves on Čurko's property, with evidence suggesting post-mortem dismemberment and cannibalism.

In 2011, a Swiss man named Markus Dubach contacted Slovak authorities after engaging in similar online correspondence with Čurko. An undercover operation was arranged, during which Čurko was shot by police after drawing a firearm. He succumbed to his injuries on May 12, 2011. Subsequent investigations linked him to additional disappearances, including that of an Italian woman, though these connections remain unconfirmed.