The two are said to have cheated the bill in a bar in Linz in August 2023 and then ran over the landlady with the car. The woman survived with serious injuries, the two suspects fled and were arrested in Croatia a few days later.
“The incident is the sad climax of the two’s crimes so far,” said public prosecutor Katharina Tauschmann, describing the careers of the two defendants. The girl, who was not yet 17, and the 18-year-old had been noticed several times for minor offenses such as shoplifting, driving without authorization or breaking into cigarette machines, and had also received minor punishments.
“She actually didn’t think anything”
In August last year, the two decided to “run away from home,” according to the prosecutor. They took the accused’s mother’s car and drove from Styria to Linz. There they went into a bar and wanted to leave without paying. The waiter and the manager ran after them. The teenagers jumped into the car and drove off. When the landlady tried to stand in their way, the 16-year-old simply drove on. She later said she had not seen the woman. “It is a miracle that the woman survived,” emphasized the prosecutor.
Defense attorney Bernhard Lehofer stated on his client’s behalf that she was “a little lost in her development.” As she jumped into the car, she dropped her cell phone. She looked for it, drove off at the same time and hit the woman, who fell and was partially rolled over. The lawyer emphasized that the girl never accepted the idea of killing the woman: “In reality, she didn’t think anything,” the defense attorney was convinced and identified “panic-like behavior.”
The 18-year-old’s lawyer said his client, who is accused of being an accessory after the fact, does not feel guilty. At the request of the defense, the public was excluded during the questioning of the two defendants.
