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. The investigators know that R. was in this hall from her DNA traces on site and the movement profile of her phone.
At the latest here, in the Hiltpoltsteiner Hall, Dejan B. and Ugur T. had caused Alexandra R. to file their criminal complaints in two ongoing investigations (this was about attempted coercion after alleged threats from the men against R. and allegations of fraud because of a kind of reminder). against the two accused by a handwritten letter. This letter was received by the judiciary at a later date. “They then killed Alexandra R. and hid the body in a previously unknown location,” the public prosecutor is convinced.
The investigators have no concrete information or clues as to where the body is located. But, emphasizes Heike Klotz Bücher, spokeswoman for the Nuremberg-Fürth public prosecutor’s office, in an interview with the SZ: “The search for the body has not yet been given up.”
The authorities remain tight-lipped about the evidence that leads the public prosecutor’s office to assume murder. When asked, spokeswoman Klotz Bücher simply said that it was a matter of “the interaction of the various pieces of evidence.” In addition to DNA traces, there were also movement profiles from cell phones that suggested that the two accused had “taken control of” R.. The investigation also revealed “a very strong motive” for the men to kill Alexandra R. – and “not the slightest indication that she went into hiding voluntarily.” The prosecution is based on the statements of more than 100 witnesses and ten experts.
In its statement, the public prosecutor’s office also comments on farewell messages that were received by acquaintances after R’s disappearance: The accused pretended that Alexandra R. had “voluntarily gone abroad” and then took her phone to Italy “to keep a false trail place”. 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 a partner in one of the companies for a time and Dejan B. was an employee until his arrest in September. In this role, according to the public prosecutor’s office, he used Alexandra R’s assets to purchase a total of 27 properties for her on credit. Ugur T’s company renovated, rented and sold these.
B. was no longer allowed to approach Alexandra R.
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, which affected B. and T.’s business. According to Klotzbuch, Alexandra R. was “essential” for the company. In response to the denied account access, B. is said to have threatened the woman during personal meetings. A contact ban was then issued against him. He was no longer allowed to approach Alexandra R.
After the men were no longer able to dispose of Rs money, Ugur T. and Dejan B. are 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.