The Austrian doctor had been overwhelmed with hate mail in connection with corona vaccinations. The doctor took her own life last year. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office has now declared that it had not been able to arrest the authors of the emails. Despite “intensive investigations” by the authority and the State Criminal Police Office (LKA), the proceedings had to be discontinued on January 12, a spokesman for the public prosecutor said.
The Austrian doctor had been committed to corona vaccinations and, according to her own statements, had been put under massive pressure by opponents of vaccination for months. At the end of July 2022, Kellermayr was found dead in her practice in Upper Austria. The suicide of the 36-year-old had fueled the debate about hate online again. According to the Berlin investigators, the public prosecutor in Wels had initially investigated in Austria on suspicion of a threat.
At the beginning of August 2022, the case was taken over by Berlin. The focus was on two people in the capital. However, their personal details were not consistent, according to the public prosecutor. Therefore, the investigations initially focused primarily on determining the correct personal data.
A spokesman for the authorities said that the e-mail addresses used to send the e-mails and the findings of a hacker who had researched on her own were clues. However, the addresses were set up in the so-called Darknet. According to the public prosecutor’s office, everyone would have had the opportunity to set up these mail accounts with false personal details or using the name of another person.
Internet users can browse the so-called dark web almost completely anonymously. One of the accused denied the hacker that he had sent the emails, it said. This cannot be refuted. Misuse of personal details cannot be ruled out. The authorities do not see any other options for clarifying the case.
Editor’s Note: We have chosen to be very cautious in reporting on suicides or attempted suicides. The reason is the high rate of copycats after every report on suicide. If you feel affected yourself, please contact the telephone counseling service immediately (http://www.telefonseelsorge.de). You can call the free hotline 0800-1110111 or 0800-1110222 to get help from advisors who, in many cases, have been able to point out ways out of difficult situations.