Two children probably killed a 12-year-old in Freudenberg.
The perpetrators are still too young to be punished - and parents are now worried about their children.
Update from March 16, 12:48 p.m .
: In Freudenberg (17,000 inhabitants) nothing is like it used to be.
The act of violence against Luise (12) stunned and worried Freudenberg's parents (see below).
On March 11, 2023, Luise was allegedly stabbed to death by two classmates in a forest.
The two girls (12 and 13) have confessed to the crime, and due to their age they are not threatened with criminal prosecution.
The parents of the alleged suspects have now left Freudenberg, reports
WDR
.
Your current whereabouts would remain secret.
The two alleged perpetrators are "accommodated outside the home environment," said the Siegen-Wittgenstein district on Wednesday.
However, the parents have contact with their children.
"Because of the young age of the girls, contact with the family is very important for the development of successful support and is supported in this respect." In the next steps, the events would be processed with all those involved.
Update from March 15, 5:34 p.m .:
On Saturday (March 11), 12-year-old Luise was killed in Freudenberg near Siegen (North Rhine-Westphalia).
Two 12- and 13-year-old girls from their circle of acquaintances have confessed to the crime.
Despite the horrible act, classes at the school of the dead are scheduled to gradually return to scheduled classes on Thursday (March 16).
For three days, the students and teachers took the time to talk and mourn the crime.
This process is far from over, said the spokesman for the responsible Arnsberg district government, Christoph Söbbeler, on Wednesday.
Nevertheless, the way back to normal school operations should gradually be taken.
"But there's no pressure at all," he said.
Where students still want to have conversations, regular classes take a backseat.
Psychologists and experts from the district government are still working at the school.
They conducted one-on-one discussions and also support the teachers in starting good conversations with their classes and responding to the students' emotions.
Freudenberg: Perpetrators of the same age admit the murder of a 12-year-old
First report from March 15:
Freudenberg - "Stunned - speechless - helpless", these words are on a page in the condolence book for the killed 12-year-old Luise in the Evangelical Church of Freudenberg.
They express what many people in the small town near Siegen in North Rhine-Westphalia feel.
They mourn the 12-year-old schoolgirl who was killed on her way home in a wooded area after visiting a friend.
The shocking news came on Tuesday (March 14): The alleged perpetrators are still children themselves.
Two 12- and 13-year-old girls confessed to stabbing Luise with a knife.
The children knew each other.
+
Two children probably killed a 12-year-old in Freudenberg.
The perpetrators are too young to be punished.
© IMAGO/Rene Traut
Despite the cruel act, the alleged perpetrators must be protected during the investigation - because they are still children themselves, emphasized the chief public prosecutor in Koblenz, Mario Mannweiler.
In view of the many stab wounds suffered by the victim, it is reasonable to assume "that some emotions played a role".
However, Luise's death will have no criminal consequences.
Children under the age of 14 are fundamentally innocent – even in the case of murder or manslaughter.
Some parents in the small town are extremely unsettled by this fact.
A father reported that he would no longer let his children go to school alone.
"Only when the case has been cleared up," he told RTL reporter Jürgen Weichert.
The need for education and information is "enormous".
Weichert reported of great sympathy and dismay in the village.
A woman wanted to speak to him.
She herself is a mother of three girls, she said.
Then she burst into tears.
"She just couldn't keep talking," the reporter said.
Freudenberg: Death of 12-year-old Luise unsettles parents
At the end of the investigation, the public prosecutor's office passes the case on to the youth authorities.
According to experts, the measures taken there depend on the individual case.
According to information from the
German Press Agency (dpa)
, it is conceivable that the perpetrators will receive psychiatric treatment, possibly also in a closed facility.
But it is also possible that the parents will get help with the upbringing – or that the child will be placed in a home or with a foster family for a while.
However, the legal hurdles for separating from parents against their will are high.
NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) spoke of a worrying increase in the number of crimes by children against children in North Rhine-Westphalia.
"We have to investigate them, find causes and do preventive work," he emphasized.
"Freudenberg's act will leave traces beyond Luise's terrible death." What this act will trigger in the local and school community can at best be guessed at, says Wüst.
Death of Luise (12): There is no trace of the murder weapon in Freudenberg
Police were at the scene again on Tuesday.
According to the dpa
, there is still no trace of the murder weapon
.
The place where Luise was found was also the scene of the crime.
He lies remotely in the forest on the border of Rhineland-Palatinate to North Rhine-Westphalia.
Freudenberg is a few kilometers away.
Cell phones have no reception here.
The terrain is impassable, only one bike path leads through the valley.
Actually, Luise shouldn't have gone here to come home.
What brought the three girls here remains unknown.
"We are now placing this case in the hands of the youth authorities," says prosecutor Mannweiler.
Psychologists, psychiatrists and parents are now in demand.
"The real work is just beginning now."
(na/dpa)
List of rubrics: © Oliver Berg/dpa/Police
