crime
Doppelganger murder trial is already stalled
The accused 24-year-old comes to the murder trial. She is said to have killed a doppelganger so that she could go into hiding. photo
© Cornelia Hammer/dpa
Because she wanted to go into hiding, an Ingolstadt woman is said to have killed a woman who looked like her – together with an accomplice. Now the process began. But he could soon be suspended.
The young Ingolstadt woman in the dock is said to have specifically searched for doppelgangers on a social network in order to kill one of them and thus stage her own death. Now the 24-year-old and a suspected accomplice have to answer for joint murder before the Ingolstadt regional court. The trial got off to a rocky start and was dominated by legal formalities. The defenders of the The woman submitted several applications, one of which seeks a general suspension of the proceedings.
The accused German-Iraqi woman and the 25-year-old Kosovan are said to have killed a 23-year-old from Baden-Württemberg so that the accused woman could go into hiding. The background is said to have been disputes within the family of the accused woman and the family of her ex-partner, which are said to have arisen in connection with the separation of the two former partners.
In order to start a new life, the beautician is said to have tried to contact women who looked similar to her via Instagram in order to find a victim. According to the prosecution, an attempt was made to persuade these doppelgangers to meet up with promises.
Free cosmetic treatment as an excuse
A 23-year-old from Eppingen (Heilbronn district) is said to have finally gotten involved. The defendants are said to have picked up the victim from home in August 2022. The public prosecutor explained that the 23-year-old had been promised that she would receive free cosmetic treatment in Ingolstadt. On the way there, the young woman is said to have been brutally killed in a forest area. The man is said to have stabbed a total of 56 times on the chest, back, neck and face.
Due to a series of requests from the woman’s lawyers – she has four defense lawyers – the trial was significantly delayed on the first day. The two defense attorneys for the co-accused had a small verbal exchange with their colleagues, but saw no need to submit their own applications.
The 24-year-old’s lawyers particularly criticized the fact that a fair trial was not possible. Since the public prosecutor’s office has presented extensive additional investigation files in recent weeks, further time will be needed to familiarize themselves, the defense attorneys explained. They therefore requested that the entire procedure be suspended again for some time.
Confusedly similar
The public prosecutor rejected this. In complex proceedings, it is not unusual for files to be submitted even after the indictment has been filed. However, there was “nothing new” in the content of the newly submitted documents and the public prosecutor did not recognize any particular relevance to the proceedings. In any case, for the criminal chamber, the application for a stay was so extensive that it ended the first day of the trial prematurely. Next Monday the court will announce whether it will accept the application for a stay.
After the bloody act, the 23-year-old’s body was found in the beautician’s car in Ingolstadt by relatives of the defendant. In fact, because of the similarity, the Ingolstadt woman’s family initially thought that the defendant had been killed. But the very next day, the alleged victim was arrested as a suspect, as was the co-accused man. According to the public prosecutor’s office, both denied the murder charge at the time and then remained silent during further investigations.
The regional court has initially planned 28 hearing dates, with a verdict expected in May if possible. If the schedule is not sufficient, further trial days are already planned from June. The criminal chamber wants to hear more than 100 witnesses to clarify what happened.