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Police operation in January 2022: Two dead children discovered
Photo: Nicolas Armer / dpa
A good year after the death of two children in Karlstein, Lower Franconia, the investigations have been completed.
The public prosecutor's office in Aschaffenburg announced that no charges would be brought against the father of the two.
According to investigators, the man had caused the death of the girl and boy by using a pesticide used in the house.
A chemical reaction produced toxic monophosphine (also known colloquially as phosphine), which killed the five-year-old and four-year-old.
The gas had been detected during an examination of the building by special forces.
Brother discovered lifeless siblings
After the events at the end of January last year, the investigators soon assumed an accident, but had investigated the father in two cases on suspicion of negligent homicide.
With the approval of the court, an indictment was refrained from because the consequences of the crime, i.e. the death of the children, hit the accused so hard "that the imposition of a penalty would obviously have failed," it said.
The children had been discovered lifeless by their brother in the house in Karlstein near Aschaffenburg.
During his interrogation, the then 49-year-old father admitted to having used pesticides in craft work.
bbr/AFP/dpa