Former Julia-Eck
Photo: Marcus Simaitis / Der SpiegelOn the morning of December 7, 2001, Chief Inspector Axel Pütter looked into a residential container that was on the premises of a dairy in Herne. The body of warehouse worker Klaus K. was lying on the bed in a pool of blood. A forensic doctor was later to find 34 incisions and punctures during the autopsy - on the neck, chest, back and temples. The throat had been slit four times. At the beginning of the investigation, Pütter wondered whether a serial offender had struck here. He was convinced that someone who kills so brutally must have been violent before.
Axel Pütter says today that in his 45 years with the police he has never before and never faced a comparably brutal and senseless crime. He is sitting at home at his dining table in Herne in a short-sleeved shirt, he talks objectively and clearly. Only once, at the very end, does he allow himself an emotional sentence.
The dairy, says Pütter, was in a spacious industrial area at the wholesale market, where someone is actually always on their feet. So he and his team immediately started interviewing people.
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