28 years after the death of a 13-year-old in Lower Franconia, the public prosecutor wants to bring a man to court for murder. The public prosecutor Tobias Kostuch announced that the authority had brought charges to the youth chamber of the Würzburg regional court. The then 17-year-old is said to have killed the girl named Sabine shortly before Christmas 1993 in a district of Karlstadt. The public prosecutor’s office assumes an act “to satisfy the sexual instinct”.
The suspect from the Main-Spessart district was arrested on suspicion of murder after searches in January. He was released a few weeks later, but the investigation continued. Investigators had previously focused on him.
When in 1994 the Würzburg district court acquitted a then 15-year-old in the case, the judge named two other suspects in the judgment. Including the now accused. The investigators also had another suspect in their sights, and the judge had also voiced suspicions against him in 1994. However, proceedings against him have now been discontinued due to a lack of evidence.
The girl was last seen in 1993 on a farm in the Wiesenfeld district. Investigators discovered the 13-year-old there under the concrete cover of a manure pit. A student was arrested after the crime. He was acquitted in the manslaughter trial. He was later killed in a traffic accident.
It is by no means certain whether the Würzburg regional court will allow the charge that has now been brought. The same youth chamber that had already ordered the release of the 17-year-old from pre-trial detention at the time of the crime has to decide on this. According to the public prosecutor’s office, “trail hits were found on the slip of the killed”, specifically it was a “sperm head”.
A witness is also named who is supposed to provide information about a possible sexual background to the crime. According to other testimonies, the suspect should have shown conspicuous interest in the act.
Should the indictment be in this cold case are allowed, there would probably be a circumstantial trial, probably closed to the public, since the defendant was a minor at the time of the crime. The public prosecutor’s office would have to prove a murder. A manslaughter would already be statute-barred.