Teutoburg Forest
Homeless man killed and crime filmed – police suspect three young people
A police murder squad is investigating the violent death of a homeless man in the Lippe district
© Christian Müller / DPA
The crime leaves the investigators speechless. In Horn-Bad Meinberg in the Teutoburg Forest, a homeless man is said to have died due to violence from young people. There are recordings of the crime that the police have.
Three young people are said to have killed a homeless man in the Lippe district (North Rhine-Westphalia) and filmed the crime. A 14-year-old and two 15-year-olds were arrested, public prosecutor Alexander Görlitz told the DPA news agency on Friday. A passerby found the dead man in a meadow on Thursday morning Horn-Bad Meinberg discovered. According to the public prosecutor, the two older teenagers admitted violence against the homeless man.
The identity of the victim, who is to be autopsied on Friday, has now been clarified, according to the public prosecutor’s office in Detmold. Görlitz assumes that the victim and perpetrator met by chance.
Deadly attack on homeless man filmed
The young people filmed the attack and distributed it. Through these recordings, the investigators were able to track down the group. The suspects were due to be brought before a judge on Friday.
In recent years, crimes committed by children and young people have repeatedly caused horror. According to figures from the State Criminal Police Office in North Rhine-Westphalia, 20,948 children – i.e. those under 14 years old – were recorded as suspects in the situation report for last year. That’s an increase of 41.1 percent. Among young people (up to 18 years of age) there were 44,871 suspects (plus 24 percent) and among adolescents (up to 21 years of age) the investigators counted 36,157 suspects in crimes (plus 5.2 percent).
In March 2023, two girls aged 12 and 13 killed a classmate near Siegen. Twelve-year-old Luisa fell victim to a crime in a forest near Freudenberg on her way home. The girls confessed to the crime.
In Wunsiedel in Bavaria, a ten-year-old girl is said to have been killed by an eleven-year-old in a children’s home at the beginning of April. In Lohr am Main in Lower Franconia in Bavaria, a 14-year-old is said to have shot a classmate of the same age on the school grounds in September.
In January, a 15-year-old pushed a 78-year-old off her bike in Ellwangen in Baden-Württemberg. The woman died from her injuries. The motive was unclear, neither of them knew each other. A few days earlier, the 15-year-old is said to have knocked over a wheelchair user after an argument.
Homeless people repeatedly become victims of crime, as is now the case in Horn-Bad Meinberg. At the end of September, a homeless woman was shot in Iserlohn. In April, a homeless man died at the freight station in Neuss. A then 17-year-old is said to have stabbed the 31-year-old.