Aachen / Krefeld.
In 1996, a now 51-year-old is said to have murdered a man out of greed. From Tuesday, the alleged perpetrator of the Sandkuhle murder will be on trial.
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- Almost 25 years after the discovery of a long unidentified one Dead on the Lower Rhine the murder trial against a 51-year-old begins in Aachen.
- The case was meanwhile a so-called „Cold Case“ become.
- Are for the trial at the regional court eight days of negotiations planned.
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The corpse with massive traces of violence lay in December 1996 in a remote forest between the wide fields of the Lower Rhine. A hunter discovered the naked body. But the Identity of the murder victim remained unexplained for more than 20 years: No missing person reports continued, and at the place of discovery Rheurdt-Schaephuysen there were no traces.
“I’ve always asked myself how to get there,” says Gerhard Hoppmann, the long-time head of the homicide squad in Krefeld. The now 62-year-old investigator was there at the time. The case got its name from the place where the body was found at the edge of a gravel pit “Sand coal”. It quickly became clear that this lonely place was not the scene of the crime.
The investigators puzzled: Could the stranger be an Eastern European, one of the many Polish farm workers on the Lower Rhine? But nothing worked, all approaches came to nothing. Due to a lack of investigation prospects, the case was suspended, became a “cold case”.But then there was a surprising dynamic: at the beginning of September 2020, the identity of the murder victim became known, and just four weeks later he was locked up Suspect in custody.
“Cold Case” Rheurdt: Family never reported father as missing
This 51-year-old man will have to appear before the district court on Tuesday, almost 25 years after the fact Murder trial be responsible. Murder does not expire. Eight days of negotiations are planned until May 11. “Like a thriller,” observers commented on the development. Because the fact that the murder victim could still be identified is pure coincidence. While zapping, a television viewer accidentally discovered the ZDF broadcast “Aktenzeichen XY … unsolved” a new portrait of the unknown. The hint was right, as did the later DNA test: The dead man was a 43-year-old former bus driver from Aachen.
From his family was the divorced father of two children never reported missing been. He had traded mobile homes in Würselen near Aachen and got into debt. In December 1996 he disappeared from one day to the next, with him the German shepherd “Rex” and his VW bus. His family assumed the 43-year-old had turned out went abroad. “It is important that the children know what happened,” said the then investigator for the Krefeld homicide commission, Gerhard Hoppmann. Now the 7 and 14-year-old children would have found out why their father never got in touch.
Murder case “Sandkuhle”: perpetrators are said to have killed cruelly and out of greed
The German accused is said to have known the victim and occasionally worked in his workshop. An accomplice is said to have been a then 26-year-old accomplice who died a year later in a motorcycle accident in Turkey. Both are supposed to be the RV dealer cruelly and killed out of greed to have. It should have gone to 5000 marks. While the accomplice, who died later, is said to have struck many times with a hammer, the defendant is accused of having Victim choked to death with rope to have.
The scene of the crime was probably the victim’s apartment near Aachen. There are now witnesses who claim to have known about the crime. Why didn’t you get in touch beforehand? You would either have one close relationship with the suspects the investigator reported.
The then head of the homicide squad arrested the suspect himself. This did not testify, but asked for a lawyer, reported Hoppmann. The police and the judiciary had emphasized this several times Order of pre-trial detention do not contain a judgment on the guilt of the accused. Investigator Hoppmann is now retired. He will be heard as a witness in the proceedings. (dpa)
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