After a violent crime against a couple in Altenstadt (Neu-Ulm district), a 38-year-old and his 33-year-old wife have been charged with murder. As the public prosecutor’s office reported on Wednesday, a 32-year-old man from Baden-Württemberg was also charged with aiding and abetting. The regional court in Memmingen must now decide whether to admit the charges; a possible trial date is not yet known.
On April 22nd, a 70-year-old man and his 55-year-old wife were found dead in their single-family home. Investigators believe that the couple broke into the apartment building the previous night while the residents were already in bed. The accused 38-year-old is the son of the 70-year-old.
According to the prosecution, the man was suffocated. The 55-year-old is said to have been killed with a large number of stab wounds. Ultimately, the two suspects are said to have tried to disguise what happened as a so-called extended suicide. The criminal police should believe that the pensioner killed his partner and himself. But the investigators had doubts about this early on.
The trio was arrested almost three weeks after the crime and all three were taken into custody. The couple was caught in Altenstadt, the suspected helper comes from Albstadt ( Zollernalbkreis ).
The public prosecutor believes that the 32-year-old, a friend of the 38-year-old man, approved of the bloody act. “In particular, he was supposed to provide the other two with an alibi by inviting them to his place in Albstadt during the time of the crime,” reported Chief Public Prosecutor Thorsten Thamm. The friend is then said to have lent his car to the couple so that they could drive the approximately 100 kilometers to the crime scene and back to Albstadt.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses the suspected couple of committing a treacherous murder out of greed. They were concerned with the legacy of those killed, Thamm explained. They also wanted to prevent the 70-year-old from reversing the gift of a house to his son.