crime
Suspected double murder – Suspected couple remains silent
Two bodies have been found on the banks of the Rhine in recent weeks. The police are investigating a suspected couple. photo
© René Priebe/pr-video/dpa
They are said to have killed first the grandmother, then the mother: When they were arrested, the suspects had the 27-year-old’s week-old baby with them. So far they have not made any statements.
The two suspects in the alleged double murder case According to the public prosecutor’s office, mother and daughter in North Baden are a married couple. The Mannheim public prosecutor’s office said the 43-year-old man and his 44-year-old wife came from Sandhausen, a small town south of Heidelberg. It is therefore a German couple. So far, the investigators have not commented on a corresponding report in the “Bild” newspaper.
According to police, the two suspects have not yet commented on the allegations. On Wednesday, the public prosecutor’s office and the police announced that after almost two weeks of intensive searching, they had recovered the body of the 51-year-old mother from a fishing lake near Bad Schönborn (Karlsruhe district).
At the beginning of March, the body of the woman’s 27-year-old daughter was discovered on the banks of the Rhine near Hockenheim. The young woman’s baby was found unharmed by the couple from Sandhausen last week. The couple has been in custody ever since. According to investigators, the six-week-old girl remains in the care of the youth welfare office. Neither the public prosecutor nor the police have commented on the baby’s father. Police spokesman Stefan Wilhelm simply said: “The possible father of the child is not suspected of committing the crime.”
Baby theft apparently planned
According to the announcement on Wednesday, the suspects come from the personal environment of those killed. There is therefore an urgent suspicion of “communal treacherous murder to cover up a crime” in two cases. According to their own statements, the investigators assume that the two killed the baby’s grandmother on the evening of March 6th and the baby’s mother a few hours later.
The “Bild” newspaper reported at the weekend that the suspects had been telling neighbors and work colleagues over the past few months about the supposedly imminent birth of their own daughter. They are said to have killed the 27-year-old in order to pass the baby off as theirs. However, neither the police nor the public prosecutor’s office have yet commented on the couple’s possible motive.
After the second body was found, the special “Rampe” commission will be converted into a significantly smaller investigative group from next week, according to the police spokesman. Since the murdered daughter was found, around 60 officers had searched intensively for the baby and his grandmother. Around 80 reports from the public were received, some of which still need to be evaluated, said Wilhelm.