After around a decade there is movement again in a case that has become known as the "bathtub murder".
A janitor was sentenced to life imprisonment for drowning an 87-year-old girl in October 2008.
His case is now being re-examined in Munich.
He is said to have murdered a pensioner, which is why Manfred G. (61) has been in prison for more than twelve years.
In recent years, many people have doubts about his guilt - but it has only been clear since yesterday: The Munich I Regional Court has to re-examine the case.
The higher regional court in Munich has ordered a retrial.
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Rottach-Egern crime scene: The body of the 87-year-old elderly woman was found in this house
© Photo: MM Archive
Murder in the bathtub: Was caretaker Manfred G. (61) wrongly convicted in Munich?
The anxious question: Has Manfred G. been innocently in jail for years? His family and several supporters had said this for a long time - because the motive in the murder case was thin. Allegedly in a dispute, he is said to have drowned the 87-year-old Lieselotte K. in Rottach-Egern on October 28, 2008.
The police found her body in the bathtub
.
The woman had drowned.
Did Manfred G. drown her?
This is how the Munich District Court I saw it and sentenced him to life imprisonment in May 2010.
A judgment that was controversial.
Because Manfred G. had taken care of the disabled elderly woman in the residential complex after her husband passed away.
The caretaker had become her only reference person.
But also to her murderer?
The district court confirmed this in a retrial and sentenced Manfred G. to life imprisonment again in January 2012.
The court ruled out an accident of the elderly woman, who had often fallen before her death.
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Daughter Cindy R. with a photo of her convicting father Manfred G.
© Photo: Sigi Jantz
But years later, Munich lawyer Regina Rick found
new evidence in the case
.
And tried to roll it up again - on the basis of a biomechanical report that simulates the situation in which the elderly woman can be found in the bathroom.
"We were able to prove that the old lady was the victim of a regrettable domestic accident and must also have died at a time when it can be proven that Mr. G. was no longer in the apartment," said Regina Rick in June 2019. At this point in time she submitted the application for a retrial to the Munich District Court I.
Judge Elisabeth Ehrl rejected this in December 2020.
Munich: Now the murder case from 2008 is being re-examined
Now the turning point in that case!
The Munich Higher Regional Court declared Manfred G.'s application for reopening to be admissible and revoked the Regional Court's decision.
A rare success in legal terms
: Resumption only succeeds in one percent of all cases.
“The laws and jurisdiction are very restrictive,” explains Rick.
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Attorney Regina Rick pushed through the retrial in the murder case
© Achim Frank Schmidt
Munich: Lawyer has been working on the murder case for eight years
Manfred G.'s family is happy "that a new test has finally been ordered after these agonizing years," said Rick.
She has been working on the case for almost eight years.
"From my point of view, the first rejection of the requested retrial was unconstitutional because the regional court refused to hear experts."
Or can start a new negotiation right away.
For Manfred G. this means: Whether he is a murderer will be reassessed.
Andreas Thiem
