German police investigate 'horror' couple

Officials arrested 46-year-old Wilfried W. and his ex-wife Angelika B. last week for torturing and keeping a 41-year-old woman hostage. Under German law, it is not possible to give the full name of a suspect before court sentencing.

The victim, who was found in the couple's car which had broken down, later succumbed to a head wound in hospital.

Police said the 47-year-old Angelika B. had admitted to torturing and killing at least one more female victim in 2014. The couple killed the 33-year-old victim and stored her body in a deep freezer, cutting pieces off it and burning them in their fireplace.

Wilfried W., however, claimed he was innocent and blamed the crimes on his ex-wife.

Head of the Höxter homicide division Ralf Östermann said there was a possibility of a third murder at the couple's home, dubbed by German daily "Bild" as the "Horror house of Höxter."

One of the women tortured by the couple contacted the police after seeing a picture of the Höxter house on television, Östermann said. The police officer also gave detailed accounts of the couple's torture, which included tearing out clumps of victims' hair and chaining them to radiators for days on end. However, there was no evidence of sexual abuse, he added.

Höxter's Chief Prosecutor Ralf Meyer said investigators found that Wilfried W. and his former wife were driven by the desire to "exert power" and that there were indications of sadistic tendencies. Wilfried W. married in 1999 and separated from Angelika B. in 2013. Wilfried W. also tortured and abused his ex-wife "massively," according to Meyer.

The female suspect justified her crimes, saying she was "beholden" to Wilfried W., Meyer told reporters.

mg/jm (Reuters, dpa, AFP)