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Trail leads to double murderer in 34-year-old cold case

2022-04-26T15:22:58.668Z


Trail leads to double murderer in 34-year-old cold case Created: 04/26/2022Updated: 04/26/2022, 17:12 "Police" is written on a policeman's uniform. © Jens Büttner/zb/dpa/Symbolbild The murder of the innkeeper's daughter Claudia Otto in Lohmar near Bonn went unpunished for 34 years. Now the trail leads to a double murderer who has already been convicted in another matter. Lohmar - Her body was


Trail leads to double murderer in 34-year-old cold case

Created: 04/26/2022Updated: 04/26/2022, 17:12

"Police" is written on a policeman's uniform.

© Jens Büttner/zb/dpa/Symbolbild

The murder of the innkeeper's daughter Claudia Otto in Lohmar near Bonn went unpunished for 34 years.

Now the trail leads to a double murderer who has already been convicted in another matter.

Lohmar - Her body was tied up in the apartment above her parents' restaurant: the murder of the innkeeper's daughter Claudia Otto in Lohmar near Bonn seems to have finally been solved after 34 years.

A new attempt by the cold case unit in the State Criminal Police Office has now brought an already convicted double murderer into custody for this third alleged murder.

The now 66-year-old was arrested in Detmold on Tuesday, the police in Bonn said.

A judge confirmed the arrest warrant against him and sent him into custody.

Claudia Otto was strangled on May 7, 1987 at the age of 23 in her parents' country hotel "Naafshäuschen".

A year later, the suspect killed a grandmother and her grandchild in Sauerland, whom he had initially kidnapped.

In 1989, the Arnsberg Regional Court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the double murder, noting that the guilt was particularly serious.

He was behind bars for 32 years.

He has only been free since 2020.

Immediately after the murder of the 23-year-old, he was targeted by the investigators because he was considered the person who last saw the young woman alive.

But it wasn't until 2017 that Detlef M. was seriously suspected of murder - new DNA analysis methods had revealed his genetic fingerprint.

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A spokesman for the Bonn public prosecutor's office said on Tuesday that another, apparently relevant trace of an unknown person had been found, so the crime could not be proven.

The arrest warrant at the time was lifted after the suspect complained.

After a new attempt by the investigators, this has now changed: the unknown has been identified and can be ruled out as the perpetrator: it is a former employee of the State Criminal Police Office who was involved in the analysis of traces.

From the point of view of the investigators, the doubts as to whether Detlef M. was the perpetrator have been dispelled.

On this basis, a magistrate in Siegburg issued an arrest warrant for murder against the 66-year-old, who is considered a serial killer if convicted.

NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) spoke of a good day for the North Rhine-Westphalian investigative authorities and a good day for justice.

The investigators never gave up, put up with setbacks and used the latest scientific methods.

"The success proved them right today." dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-04-26

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