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Germans arrested for double murder in Paraguay

November 10, 2021

Police suspect the three men of killing a German violin craftsman and his teenage daughter last month. Authorities say the killings were very likely connected to Stradivarius violins he was repairing.

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Bernard von Bredow's home in Paraguay
Police say the victim was tortured by perpetrators looking for certificates of authenticity for valuable Stradivarius violinsImage: Jorge Saenz/AP/picture alliance

Police in Paraguay on Wednesday announced the arrest of three Germans in connection to the brutal October 22 double murder of a 62-year-old man and his 14-year-old daughter at their home in Aregua outside the capital, Asuncion.

The arrests were announced by Police Commissioner Hugo Grance, who said four violins believed to have been made by the 17th and 18th century Italian, luthier Antonio Stradivari were found in the possession of one of the suspects, a 58-year-old German, who lived nearby.

Grance said the elder victim, a Bavarian who was internationally known as an expert restorer of musical instruments and had lived in Paraguay for two years, had apparently left the violins with one of the suspects during a trip to Germany but upon return had been told the valuable instruments had been destroyed in a fire.

"Our principal hypothesis is that the motive for the double crime was to find the international certification of authenticity of the violins so they could be sold," said Grance.

The Kreutzer Stradivarius violin is seen on display in London May 9, 2014.
Stradivarius violins can fetch millions of dollars at auctionImage: Reuters

The commissioner noted that when police originally arrived at the murder scene they found the house in "complete disarray, and blood stains indicated that the Germans were probably killed elsewhere on the property. The man had traces of having been tortured.''

Police reports said the man's body had been found lying on a table with a gunshot wound to the back of his head as well as bearing signs of torture, and that his daughter's body was found in the bathtub with a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Prosecutor Lorena Ledesma told reporters: "To commit the crime and such a brutal murder they must have known the victims. We've found a lot of evidence." Ledesma said the perpetrators had been "looking for authentication certificates" needed to sell the violins and that authorities would continue to search for evidence as they suspect more people may be involved in the crime.

Violins built by Stradivari can sell for millions of dollars; the so-called "Lady Blunt" Stradivarius fetched around $15 million at a charity auction in 2011. Others not so recently auctioned have even higher estimated values.

Saving a Stradivarius

js/msh (AFP, AP)