As of Tuesday, a 92-year-old man from Gemünden will have to answer for manslaughter before the Würzburg district court: After 70 years of marriage, he had put a blanket in his wife's face and killed her.
The crime has a tragic background: the woman was suffering from dementia.
Obviously, the public prosecutor assumes, the 92-year-old acted out of hopelessness - because he and his wife could not lead a life together in health and self-determination.
The man had taken care of his sick wife at home together with outpatient service providers.
But as dementia progressed, it was foreseeable that home care would not be possible for much longer.
The 91-year-old would have come to a home.
On the night of the crime, according to the prosecution, everything came together: the personal overload from the care and the impending separation from his wife.
At the beginning of November 2019, the man is said to have suffocated his wife in the marriage bed with a blanket.
The accused also wanted to take his own life - but failed
The defendant wrote a suicide note with instructions for the time after death.
Because he wanted to take his own life too.
According to the prosecution, he is said to have written that it was the common will of the couple to part from life together.
Whether the woman with dementia was mentally able to decide about her life and to see the consequences of this decision will in all probability become part of the negotiation.
The defendant called the ambulance about an hour after the crime and asked to collect the bodies and contact the bereaved.
The suicide attempt failed, however.
The public prosecutor suspects a severe depressive mood behind the crime.
The district court in Würzburg will have to clarify in the hearing whether there was a reduced culpability.
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hej / dpa