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CRIME

Family man admits five murders in stunning ‘cold case’ revelation

Police investigating a classic ‘cold case’ have arrested a family man at his north German home for the murder of a teenager more than 20 years ago – only to have him admit to being a serial killer with five young women on his conscience.

Published: 17 June 2011 15:51 CEST
Family man admits five murders in stunning 'cold case' revelation
One of five victims, Gabriele Stender. Photo: DPA

The now 64-year-old man was identified by a saliva sample he had given detectives during their 1984 investigation of the murder of Gabriele Stender.

More than 150 men in the Segeberg area near Kiel, volunteered last year to give samples to help the hunt for her killer as police wanted to use modern DNA identification techniques to make a last attempt to find the man responsible.

Little did the detectives realise when they arrested the family man who had lived a quiet life for decades that they were dealing with a serial killer.

He admitted killing 18-year-old Gabriele Stender, saying he had picked her up as she hitch-hiked to a disco, then raped and strangled her with her own scarf.

Then he told detectives he had also killed four other young women in northern Germany between 1969 and 1972. They said on Friday they had no doubt he was telling the truth about the two 16-year-olds and the two 22-year-olds he said he had also killed.

They said his attacks always followed the same pattern – he would watch a young woman from his car, follow and then suddenly attack her, before killing her. Further details will not be released to protect the investigation.

DPA/DAPD/The Local/hc

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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