There is a large television in room 169 of the Kempten Regional Court. On the third day of the trial surrounding the alleged murder near Neuschwanstein Castle, the court also showed images and videos of the crime scene on the screen and on the wall for the audience. Then, however, the presiding judge Christoph Schwiebacher has the images turned off for the audience, as he says, for reasons of piety. The videos that the defendant made of the crime should only be seen by those involved in the trial. Trial observers hear rustling, panting, a struggle. Judge Schwiebacher looks at the screen, then takes a longer look at the defendant: Troy B. has slumped down – he doesn’t look at the screen once.
Murder, rape, attempted murder and possession of depictions of sexual violence against children are the charges for which the defendant must answer. He is said to have strangled 21-year-old Eva L. and pushed her down a cliff. Her 22-year-old friend Kelsey C. wanted to help her, so he pushed her down the slope too, according to the lawsuit. In his psychiatric report on Wednesday, an expert spoke of an act that was probably spontaneous and sexually motivated. The specialist attests that the defendant has pedophilic and voyeuristic interests.
The basis for this assessment are the child pornography images and video chats between the defendant and adult women. The expert was at the correctional facility last August to speak with Troy B. in person. However, after 15 minutes, the defendant broke off the conversation and refused to investigate. The report is therefore drawn up purely from the files and assumes that Troy B. has a great interest in women of Asian descent – and in petite women. Eva L., who was killed, was 1.62 meters tall and weighed 52 kilograms. The expert concludes all of this, among other things, from the defendant’s preference for computer games and – sometimes pornographic – films from Asia. The man also has a tattoo that references an Asian computer game.
The two US tourists he attacked are of Asian descent. They were on a trip to Europe and wanted to fly home the day after the crime. The presiding judge will have the minutes of the emergency calls read out on Wednesday. When Kelsey C. sits down on the slope next to her unconscious friend and talks to a first responder on the phone, the man engages her in conversation after a certain amount of time. She can’t help her gasping and wheezing friend, she can’t turn her around, she’s afraid that the perpetrator will come again and she’ll fall further. She is waiting for a mountain rescue helicopter.
The first aider wants to calm the 22-year-old, so he lets her tell her: That she studied computer engineering and that she – just like her friend – has already found a job as a software engineer back home in the USA. She says that they were out on hiking trails that day, but not yet in Neuschwanstein Castle itself. They were saving that for later. But then Kelsey C. says on the phone: “I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore.”