crime
Serial murders in Schwäbisch Hall? police to investigate
At a spontaneously convened press conference, the police want to clarify the results of the investigation into a possible series of murders of senior citizens in Schwäbisch Hall. photo
© Stefan Puchner/dpa
Three dead elderly women, all from the same region, all victims of violence. The police in northern Württemberg suspect, they investigate and search. Will she also find something? An announcement by the investigators suggests this.
Have the police caught a serial killer in the Schwäbisch Hall region? Or do the three violent crimes against senior citizens in the Schwäbisch Hall region have nothing to do with each other? The public prosecutor’s office and the police have invited to a spontaneous press conference for Wednesday morning.
The investigators announced in the morning that the latest developments and investigation results of SOKO “Höhe” should be reported. However, the police did not provide any further information.
The violent death of several senior citizens had recently unsettled people in the Schwäbisch Hall region. Last week, an 89-year-old woman was found dead in her apartment in Michelbach an der Bilz. In this context, the death of a 77-year-old in December last year was checked again. The woman’s body was found in her apartment in Schwäbisch Hall. Police believe both women were killed.
The death of a 94-year-old senior whose body was found in Schwäbisch Hall in October 2020 and very close to the apartment of the dead 77-year-old was also unclear until the very end. Here, too, the police are assuming a homicide. In September 2021, the public prosecutor initially closed the investigation file because there was no further information.
Search for clues in the dumpster
The investigators found parallels in the three cases and, among other things, raised suspicions because the three victims were older women from the same region, for example. Until Tuesday, however, they had called the investigation and the review “routine” and “automatism”. According to the “Stuttgarter Zeitung”, a block of flats in the Tullauerhöhe district of Schwäbisch Hall was also searched on Tuesday. There are also two of the three crime scenes. Around a dozen civil servants had therefore shielded the building from passers-by and, among other things, secured traces in a garbage container.
The “Stuttgarter Zeitung” also quotes witnesses who said they had seen a man in handcuffs. According to the police headquarters in Aalen, the operation is related to the special commission “height”, which was determined in the three murders of senior citizens and has now been increased to 75 officers.