old town
Couple killed – Three suspects arrested
Police tape is hanging on the courtyard gate of the family home where the bodies of a couple were discovered. photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
The detective is a good deal further in solving a violent crime against a married couple. Now three suspects are in custody, including two relatives. The motive is said to be a dispute over property.
Three and a half weeks after the violent crime against a couple in Swabia, the investigators caught the son of the killed man and two other suspects in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg on Tuesday. Two family members of the victims were arrested in the early hours of the morning in Altenstadt, south of Ulm. It is a 32-year-old woman and her 37-year-old husband.
The arrested man was the son of the 70-year-old who was killed, a police spokesman reported in the afternoon. Several media had previously reported on the family relationship. The third person arrested is a 32-year-old acquaintance of the suspected couple from Albstadt (Baden-Württemberg). He is accused of aiding and abetting the violent crime.
Investigators remain taciturn
The investigators did not disclose exact details of how the couple were killed, even after the arrest, so as not to jeopardize the further investigation of the case. “That’s criminal knowledge,” police spokesman Holger Stabik said.
The investigation is being conducted into a double murder. Relatives found the 70-year-old and the 55-year-old dead in their home in Altenstadt on April 22. From the beginning, the police assumed that the perpetrators were probably to be found in the circle of acquaintances of the victims. After a few days, it was ruled out that one or more burglars could have killed the man and woman. The Kripo had set up a special commission to solve the crime.
Dispute over assets apparently central motive
In the social environment of the dead there were people “who could have possible motives for the act of violence,” the police reported at the end of April. On Tuesday, the officers added after the arrest: “Due to numerous physical and digital traces, which the investigators found and evaluated, the suspicion against the arrested persons had been substantiated in the past few days.” The criminal police assumes that a dispute over assets is the main motive for the act of violence.
The investigators were assisted by special police forces in the arrest. The suspects’ homes were then searched. The accused are now in custody in various prisons.
After the crime, the perpetrators are said to have tried to disguise what happened as a kind of suicide. It should look like one of the victims killed the other and then killed himself. The Kripo also ruled out such a so-called extended suicide quite quickly.