crime
45 years after murder: 70-year-old defendant remains silent
There is no statute of limitations on murder: 45 years later, a man has to answer before the Munich I regional court. photo
© Frank Leonhardt/dpa
A 70-year-old is said to have brutally murdered out of greed 45 years ago. The defendant remains silent about the allegations. But old files also play a major role in the process for other reasons.
His movements are a bit stiff, his hair is gray below his half-bald head, but the eyes of the accused 70-year-old are wide awake when the prosecutor confronts him accused of murder.
Committed 45 years ago on a Munich pensioner who was found in his bathtub with his skull crushed. The last time the victim was seen alive was shortly before New Year’s Eve 1978, according to the indictment before the Munich I Regional Court – in the company of a young man who investigators were convinced was the defendant.
The investigators only discovered the Brit, who was living in his home country, during the course of processing old cases – a rare success after all these decades. At the start of the trial, however, the defendant made no statements about himself or the allegations themselves. However, according to the police’s “cold case” officer, who was interviewed as a witness, both the fingerprints and the DNA traces found match.
The case
The case caused a stir at the time as the “New Year’s Eve murder”: relatives were worried because the victim, who was known to hang out with prostitutes, had not appeared at a mass as agreed and had not responded to calls. The police then found the 69-year-old dead in his bathtub on January 2nd with his skull shattered – two plastic bowls and a bucket on his head.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, they were supposed to protect the defendant from the gruesome sight while he searched the apartment for valuables and in the end disappeared with at least 1,000 marks in cash, a coin ring and the key. The ring was found at a subway construction site, but otherwise the investigation came to nothing.
However, the police had secured three fingerprints in the apartment at the time, as well as a hair and liquid on the bed sheet. In 2005, thanks to advances in forensic science, DNA traces were extracted from these evidence. When the files were reopened, the Munich case handler compared the fingerprints across Europe in 2018. However, the hit report only came at the end of 2021 – from England.
Many witnesses are no longer alive
The alleged perpetrator was arrested there without resistance in the spring of 2023 – murder does not have a statute of limitations. Now that the man, who has already been convicted twice for robbery and receiving stolen property and was imprisoned for many years, has remained silent, the court is facing a more complex procedure: “Of course, a lot of witnesses have died,” said the presiding judge. Accordingly, the proceedings are based on many old documents, all of which have to be translated for the defendant.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the future victim took the young man to his apartment on December 30, 1978 in the hope of consensual sexual intercourse. After visiting an adult cinema, the 69-year-old had a bathtub run during the night or in the early hours of New Year’s Eve.
The defendant took advantage of this to take a metal mortar pestle from a chest of drawers in the hallway and used it to knock the pensioner down from behind, the prosecutor said. Because the victim was still moving, he struck again after a short pause. The victim died as a result of a total of ten blows.
Police officers interviewed as witnesses described from their conversations with the defendant that he came from a difficult family background and had worked in various professions before retiring. When he was transferred to Germany, he was friendly, calm and withdrawn. The verdict is expected to come at the beginning of April.