Wunstorf: 14-year-old in custody on suspicion of murder

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Use in Wunstorf (recording from January 25th): A young person was the victim of an act of violence

Photo: Moritz Frankenberg / dpa

After the violent death of a 14-year-old from Wunstorf near Hanover, custody has been ordered for the suspect of the same age.

The arrest warrant was issued for murder, said Can Türkay, spokesman for the Hanover public prosecutor's office.

The murder characteristic of insidiousness is - as requested - seen.

The suspect was taken to the Hamelin Juvenile Institution.

The 14-year-old victim was "suspecting and defenseless," said the spokesman.

The youth did not expect that he could be killed by his "playmate".

Previously, the alleged perpetrator had been investigated for manslaughter - and not for murder.

Motive for the crime unclear

Authorities initially described him as a "friend" of the victim.

When investigators were still assuming a missing person, he is said to have told the police that he had killed and hidden the missing boy.

It was only after hours of searching that the body was discovered on a wasteland in the town of Wunstorf-Blumenau on Wednesday.

As the NDR reported, citing investigators, the suspect is said to have planned the crime for several months and used a stone as a weapon.

The "Bild" also reported on months of preparation and a stone as a murder weapon.

The public prosecutor's office has not yet provided any information.

"We want to wait for the results of the autopsy," said the spokesman for the authorities.

He also gave no information about the crime scene.

In this case, many questions remain unanswered.

The motive for the crime is unclear.

The father of the boy, who was later found dead, reported his son missing on Tuesday evening because he had not returned home from a meeting with a 14-year-old from Wunstorf.

Pastoral care for classmates

After the other young person had given information about the case in an interview, the investigators initially assumed that there was a hiding place in a forest - firefighters and several hundred police officers combed the Luther Forest without success.

Finally, the body was discovered about three kilometers from the forest area on the fallow area at the edge of a field in Blumenau.

A funeral service is planned for this Friday at the school where the youth was killed in Wunstorf.

Pastors looked after the students, the school management said.

Everyone was “horrified, stunned and infinitely sad”.

Hanover's Evangelical Bishop Ralf Meister also expressed his sympathy.

His thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased youth and his school community.

The violent death of the 14-year-old also caused consternation beyond the small town.

He reminds many people of an act in Salzgitter, where 15-year-old Anastasia was killed last summer.

A 14-year-old has been on trial in Braunschweig for a few weeks because he and a classmate who was 13 at the time of the crime and was therefore not under criminal responsibility are said to have murdered the youngster insidiously.

Despite the often great emotionality in such cases, the criminologist Klaus Boers from the University of Münster pointed out that the number of homicides in Germany had been falling for years.

This also applies to violence by young people and adolescents.

Police crime statistics show that serious violent crimes involving underage suspects are declining nationwide.

bbr/dpa