Process start
Four people with disabilities stabbed to death: investigators cite shocking details
In Potsdam, a nurse sits in the dock who is said to have stabbed four people in a nursing home
© Carsten Koall / AFP
Nationwide, the violent death of four defenseless people in a dormitory for the disabled in Potsdam caused horror. At the start of the trial against a nurse, investigators and defendants comment.
“You have to stand there very calmly,” said a detective in front of the Potsdam district court on Tuesday. She means the actions of the nurse Ines Andrea R., who is on trial for four knife murders of disabled people, among other things. There are punctiform traces of blood on the floor that led the officer to her conclusion. She had secured the traces at the scene of the crime in the Oberlinhaus, a disabled facility in Potsdam.
On the first of ten scheduled days of trial after the fourfold homicide, the security precautions are high – one check at the entrance to the judicial building, another directly in front of the trial room. There is great interest, in addition to numerous press representatives, relatives and spectators are also standing in line in front of the hall.
The defendant answers quietly
The accused is 52-year-old R., a former employee of the facility for the disabled. When all the spectators are already seated, a member of staff from the psychiatric facility in which she is currently housed will lead her to the square. Petite, blonde, dressed in a black cardigan and a flowered blouse, she takes a seat next to her lawyer.
The presiding judge Theodor Horstkötter asks her for her personal details. She answers quietly, but with a clear voice – Ines Andrea R., born in Rathenow, living in Potsdam, married. The allegations made by the public prosecutor’s office weigh heavily – insidious murder in four cases and attempted murder in three cases, each involving dangerous bodily harm.
Strangling was probably too strenuous
R. is said to have first tried to strangle two people in the facility on the evening of April 28th. She then believed a man dead. She let go of a woman because it was too “exhausting” for her, says public prosecutor Maria Stiller, while the defendant looks at the ground.
Then she took a ceramic knife eleven centimeters long from her pocket and used it to kill four people with disabilities – two women and two men between the ages of 31 and 56. Subsequently, she tried to do the same with another 43-year-old resident. The woman survived thanks to emergency surgery.
Colleagues were busy elsewhere
According to the indictment, R. works late shift. Two nurses who worked with her were busy with administrative work at the time of the crime. “The defendant took advantage of the fact that the two colleagues were busy with other activities,” says Stiller. She was also aware that her victims were seriously injured people – “people who could not defend themselves”.
When R. was given the floor, she gave a detailed account of her life. Until the divorce, she grew up with parents and a sister. Even as a child, she suffered from fears. “I felt a deep sadness and fear of life, even as a five-year-old,” she says.
Suicide Attempts and Therapies
R. reports of violence in the family, two suicide attempts, various therapies and stays in psychiatry. She also talks about her two sons, one of whom is severely disabled due to meningitis and the other had a brain tumor a few years ago.
Since 1986 R. worked as a nursing assistant, first in a nursing home, then from 1990 in the Oberlinhaus. She broke off training as a nurse. The care activity was her “calling”. “I could never imagine another job,” she says.
“Very, very, very deep cuts”
A detective shows the court pictures of the rooms of the Thusnelda-von-Saldern-Haus, part of the Oberlinhaus, in which the victims were discovered by police officers. R. was arrested immediately afterwards on urgent suspicion. The crime knife was found in a nearby parking lot.
Another officer reported evidence of massive violence – of “very, very, very deep cuts”. The defendant looks down or into space, arms crossed. According to an initial assessment, she should be less liable to be guilty.