Andreas E. shot his ex-girlfriend and her family, now he was on trial

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Andreas E. in court: Life imprisonment for fivefold murder

Andreas E. dressed as if he were attending a funeral. He enters the wood-paneled jury court room of the Innsbruck Regional Court shortly before ten o'clock in a black suit, black tie and white shirt. He endures the storm of flashlights with his head bowed. In the first row sit his parents, Christine and Michael E. They more or less knew the verdict anyway, a family member had announced in advance of the trial. 

Only one day of negotiations was scheduled. The accused confessed and pleaded guilty at the beginning of the trial. The circumstances of the crime coincide with the results of the investigation. Accordingly, Andreas E., he is 26 years old and a bricklayer, "literally executed" his ex-girlfriend, her brother and parents, and a man he did not know in Kitzbühel, according to the public prosecutor. The defense attorney says her client hopes that it will help the relatives of those killed at least a little if he is negotiated today. 

The judge asks if he would like to testify. "Yes," says Andreas E. What follows is an hour-long hearing that reveals his sometimes strange worldview. According to his conservative image of women and families, Nadine H. should have behaved differently towards him. Submissions reveal that he did not want to admit that the life plans of his five-year-old partner changed and differed from his. Andreas E. speaks with the Tyrolean dialect, has to interrupt again and again because he starts to cry, sob and blow his nose.

"No, no" does not mean "no" for him 

Andreas E. describes how his girlfriend Nadine H. left him at the end of July 2019 after they had been a couple for five years. He lacked a clear reason. When the judge reproached him that Nadine H. had clearly told him several times that it was over, that she had answered his question about a second chance with "No, no", E. replied "No, no" not "no" for him. E. would only have accepted a separation if it had taken place on his terms, says the court expert Adelheid Kastner in the afternoon. 

Andreas E. takes responsibility for his deed and yet tells it as if he had got into it through unfortunate circumstances. That evening, that night, so much had come together that he had tunnel vision. He acted out of hatred and disappointment. "It happened so quickly that my mind just can't keep up," he says of the five murders. He refuses to answer more specifically questions about the course of the crime in the house. 

It also discusses indications that suggest that Andreas E. has grown aggressive potential beforehand. After Nadine H. broke up with him, E. set his relationship status on Facebook to "widowed". He wrote a WhatsApp to a friend, suggesting that he wanted to kill a new boyfriend of Nadine H. According to his interrogation, he told his friend Tobias H. that he would have to kill him if he had a relationship with Nadine H. Andeas E. said in court that none of this was meant seriously.

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Andreas E. in autumn 2019: He signed up with Tinder, but couldn't get over the breakup

He is someone who eats everything into himself. If someone had caught him, the act might have been avoided.

Before the murders, Andreas E. and his ex-girlfriend had an argument in the "Londoner" pub. He was out with her brother Kevin and a friend that night. She comforted Andreas E. when he cried outside the pub. She and Kevin H. offered to take him home in a taxi. But he got out and drove to the house of the H family. There the father of his ex-girlfriend told him to calm down first and go home. Andreas E. did not accept the help and advice that was offered to him. He left, but did not calm down, returned several times, the last time around 5:30 a.m. with his brother's pistol and 50 cartridges.

"The accused is completely normal"

According to Adelheid Kastner, an expert in forensic psychiatry, who was invited as an expert and who prepared the report on Andreas E., there are no indications that Andreas E. is physically or mentally ill. "The accused is completely normal," says Kastner, which makes his act all the more terrible. 

Kastner sees an explanation for the act in his biography. After the separation, Andreas E. lacked affection from his parents. The emotional intimacy in his home fell by the wayside. Andreas E. told her that he had never been asked what was wrong with him, although he had lost 25 kilograms. E. hardly have a vocabulary for emotional states. He is doing well or badly, he is undifferentiated in his perception of himself and others, only knows black or white, no gray. 

The eight jurors found Andreas E. guilty, unanimously. His act was committed in cold blood, says the judge, anything other than a life sentence is not possible.