Cologne (NRW) – It took 35 years for the relatives of Petra Nohl († 24) to look the man in the face who is said to have strangled and robbed the young mother in the morning hours of February 14, 1988.
It took the police almost half a lifetime to find a suspect who is said to have killed the woman after a carnival celebration in downtown Cologne. The trial against Norbert K. (56) began on Monday before the district court.
Petra Nohl was only 24 years old
Photo: Private
Daughter had always hoped for this process
The man from Cologne entered the courtroom with a bad limp, wrapped in a winter jacket and with a gray folder in front of his face. Not once did he look in the direction of Petra Nohl’s daughter (36), who appeared in the hall as a joint plaintiff.
“My client no longer believed in it, but still hoped that this day would come,” says Monika Müller-Laschet, the daughter’s lawyer. “Of course she was upset today. This act has haunted her all her life.”
This is what the suspect looked like before he was arrested
Photo: Private
Former friend charged Norbert K.
► Until February, K. led an inconspicuous life in the Bilderstöckchen district. The most recently unemployed construction worker was a loving family man, only a few neighbors described him as annoying. But then the police showed up at his door. A former buddy had triggered the investigation.
On December 7, 2022, Norbert K.’s former friend saw “Aktenzeichen XY … unsolved” on television. The program also addressed the “cold case” surrounding the young woman from Cologne who was killed. The man then contacted the police with suspicions.
Norbert K. in the year when the crime happened
Photo: private
“He told us how he had partied with his buddy at the time in the ‘Chari Vari’ discotheque. The two of them noticed the woman right then,” said Markus Weber, head of the “Cold Cases” investigative group, after the arrest. Later they met again at a taxi stand.
“Petra Nohl wanted to move on, but, like the men, didn’t get a car,” the investigator reported. “Then the friends parted ways.” His buddy, the witness claims to have observed, followed the woman.
With this wanted poster, the police asked for information after the murder
The next day, Norbert K. suddenly changed his appearance – he wore a different hairstyle. When the discovery of the body became public, the witness said he wanted to go to the police. His friend talked him out of it. They later parted ways and lost contact.
► After his tip, the police rang the 56-year-old suspect. His DNA matches a trace on Petra Nohl’s jacket and leg. Exactly 35 years after the murder, investigators arrested Norbert K.
Petra Nohl’s acquaintance Georg Gottschalk (77) followed the start of the process
Photo: Mario Jüngling
“I’ve known Petra for a good two years and was of course shocked when I found out what happened to her,” reports Georg Gottschalk (77) on the sidelines of the process. The Cologne native is a spectator in the process. “I really wanted to be there today to look the man in the face,” says the pensioner. But many questions still remain unanswered.
Lawyers Uwe Krechel and Marc Piel (right) are convinced of their client’s innocence
Photo: Mario Jüngling
Ks. Lawyers Uwe Krechel and Marc Piel doubt that the DNA traces can prove guilt. “We’re talking about the traces of our client on the sleeves of the jacket,” say the lawyers. “This trace could also have been transferred to the cloakroom. After all, the two went to a nightclub together.”
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The statements of the former friend are also doubted. In the coming days of the trial, the defense attorneys want to present photos that are intended to prove that the alleged killer wore the same hairstyle both before and after the murder, i.e. had not changed his appearance.
At the start of the trial, the defendant said through defense attorney Krechel: “I am not responsible for the crime. I have nothing to do with the woman’s death.” Nine more days of negotiations are scheduled. A verdict is scheduled for October 24.
2023-09-04 22:37:32
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