Alexandra R. has been missing from Nuremberg for exactly 13 months now. The heavily pregnant 39-year-old took her foster daughter to a daycare center in Schwabach on the morning of December 9, 2022, after which she was lost. Police and prosecutors assume that her former partner Dejan B., 50, and her former business partner Ugur T., 48, kidnapped and killed Alexandra R., although investigators never found the expectant mother’s body. On Tuesday, the Nuremberg-Fürth public prosecutor’s office brought charges against the men on charges of hostage-taking and murder, as well as other crimes.
In a press release, she goes into more detail for the first time about what the investigators believe happened on the day Alexandra R. disappeared – until now this has largely remained hidden from the public. After she had taken the child to daycare, the men followed her in a borrowed car to an empty property that she owned in Schwabach. There they “overwhelmed” Alexandra R. and then took her to a warehouse in Hilpoltstein, about 25 kilometers south of there. There, at the latest, she would have caused Alexandra R. to withdraw her criminal complaints in two ongoing investigations (this involved attempted coercion following alleged threats against R. by the men) against the two accused by sending a handwritten letter. “They then killed Alexandra R. and hid the body in a previously unknown location,” the public prosecutor is convinced.
She also comments on the farewell messages that acquaintances received after R’s disappearance: The accused pretended that Alexandra R. had “voluntarily gone abroad” and then took her phone to Italy “to lay a false trail.” There the smartphone was found attached to his vehicle by a truck driver.
The investigating agency sees the motive for the murder, which the public prosecutor suspects, as being “personal and economic.” The latter involves disputes over business relationships. Alexandra R. stood there with both men; various companies run by Ugur T. were registered at her address in the Katzwang district of Nuremberg. Alexandra R. was temporarily a partner in one of the companies.
After her separation from Dejan B. in spring 2022, Alexandra R., according to the public prosecutor’s office, denied her ex-partner access to joint accounts, after which he is said to have threatened her. A contact ban was subsequently issued against B.. He was no longer allowed to approach Alexandra R.
Together with Ugur T., B. is said to have obtained a so-called enforcement order in the amount of 784,660.82 euros against the woman, from the perspective of the public prosecutor’s office “in a fraudulent manner”. Because she defended herself against this under civil law, she was kidnapped and killed, according to the prosecution – a week after Alexandra R’s disappearance, the decisive hearing in the case should have taken place before the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court. The prosecution considers the murder characteristics of greed, base motives and the intention to enable and cover up another crime to be met.
The accused men have remained silent about the allegations since they entered custody in September last year. The presumption of innocence still applies to them. It is unclear whether they would speak out in a trial if the court allowed the prosecution to bring charges. The prosecution is based on the statements of more than 100 witnesses and ten experts.