After almost 45 years, the Munich police may have solved the so-called “New Year’s Eve Murder.” The 69-year-old Josef B. was beaten to death in his apartment in Obergiesing on the night of December 31, 1978. From behind while he was standing in the bathroom, as Juliane Grotz from the Munich I public prosecutor’s office explained at a joint press conference on Monday with the head of the murder squad Stephan Beer. Josef B. was found in the bathtub with his skull shattered.
More than four decades later, a suspect was arrested in Great Britain in March after a new comparison of the fingerprints and DNA traces seized at the time. Because of Brexit, the extradition process was more complicated than before, but the man has now been transferred to Germany. The police said he has been in custody here since April. The suspect is a 70-year-old, divorced pensioner with British nationality. Beer didn’t want to or couldn’t give more information about him. The suspect may have been in Munich for around six months and worked on a construction site.
The manhunt was achieved as part of the “old case investigation”. The man allowed himself to be arrested without resistance. Beer said he had taken the accusation “very calmly” but had not yet commented on it. The murder squad assumes that the murder weapon was a mortar pestle weighing around one kilogram and almost 25 centimeters long, with which the perpetrator is said to have hit his victim’s head at least ten times. Fingerprints were found on the crime instrument and DNA material was also found on evidence. Among other things, a hair was found in the victim’s bed that matched that of the accused. Beer said he couldn’t say why the fingerprints were now in the British database after previous unsuccessful comparisons.
According to witness statements, the police were already looking for an unknown young Englishman with whom Josef B. was said to have been seen. The trail led to the hustler milieu, as the SZ reported at the time. B. is said to have taken home young men he met at the main train station or in the Stachus basement. A witness said that she saw the retired accountant going to his apartment with a 20-year-old shortly before his death. A reward of 3,000 marks was offered, but even a phantom photo did not lead to success.
After relatives couldn’t reach him and B. didn’t come to a mass as agreed, he was found dead in his apartment on January 2nd. Around 1,400 marks, a coin ring and the apartment keys had disappeared from the locked apartment. The evidence showed that the rooms had been searched “intensively for valuables,” said Beer. The ring was found days later on a construction site near Munich Central Station.
The public prosecutor’s office assumes murder; after all this time, manslaughter would already be statute-barred. The crime was committed intentionally, said Grotz. She considers not just one criterion for murder to be fulfilled, but three. The perpetrator acted insidiously because he took advantage of the guilelessness and defenselessness of his victim who was standing in the bathroom. In addition, he struck so that he could rob him and in doing so accepted his death. Thirdly, the murder characteristic of greed also applies: Josef B. was killed in order to enrich himself.
If the Munich I jury follows the accusation, the alleged perpetrator can be convicted here. As a British citizen, he can serve his sentence in England. Dates for the main hearing have not yet been set.