As of: February 22, 2024, 10:45 a.m
By: Matthias Matz
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A huge media frenzy accompanies the start of the trial against Troy B. He tries to protect himself with a folder in front of his face.
© Matz
It is clear to the tabloids: Troy B. is the “Neuschwanstein Killer”, the “monster from the fairytale castle”.
But who is the confessed murderer and rapist really?
Kempten -
For the tabloid media it is clear: Troy Phillip B. is the “Neuschwanstein Killer” or the “Monster from the Fairytale Castle”.
But who really is the man who confessed to having pushed two young students into the Pöllat Gorge after raping them?
The first day of the hearing before the Kempten regional court did not provide an answer to this question, only some clues.
The 31-year-old refused to provide any information about his personal circumstances on Monday, citing his family.
He alone was responsible for the acts and had nothing to do with it, he said through his defense attorney Philip Müller.
His lawyer continued to read from a personal statement by the American that he was ashamed of what had happened and regretted his actions.
The defendant also apologized to the victims' families and wants to start therapy in prison.
Apparently there are no previous convictions against him.
A case in the USA for fraud or breach of trust has apparently been dropped.
B. himself followed the proceedings motionless and with his eyes downcast, appearing intimidated and sometimes embarrassed by what he had to hear about himself and his actions.
When the judge asks whether he has any further comments on the witnesses' statements, he always answers with a barely audible "No" or simply shakes his head.
They were the only moments when he lifted his eyes from the ground.
Even when he was arrested, he was said to be calm, composed, almost apathetic.
This is what both the lead investigator Jürgen Z. from the Kempten police department and the two Füssen police officers who arrested B. on June 14th about an hour after the crime near the Marienbrücke reported.
“He had visible scratches on his face, was calm and stared stoically at the headrest of the passenger seat,” Z. recalled of his first encounter with the defendant.
Only when the subject of underwater robots did the arrestee became “astonishingly approachable,” the detective reported.
In fact, it was reported on Monday that the American is said to be the CEO of an underwater robot company in Michigan.
Arrest without resistance
The two Füssen officers reported that B. allowed himself to be arrested without resistance.
When asked about the two victims, he denied knowing what it was about.
He explained the scratches as a fall into a bush.
There were no signs of alcohol or drug consumption, the police officers answered independently of each other when asked the judge's question.
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The presiding judge Christoph Schwiebacher also wants to know from the witness who caught B. raping Eva L. and initially believed that she had caught a couple in the act, what impression he made on her.
When she caught B. having suspected sex with a woman, he turned to her, looked her in the eyes and said “oh, sorry!”, the woman reports.
Later, when he walked downhill from the crime scene and practically ran into the hands of the witness and the two police officers, he appeared “very tired” with his slow gait and his downcast gaze.
“My friend said he was on drugs,” said the woman from Ravensburg.
Planned act or spontaneous impulse?
In addition to the question of who Troy B. is, the court will above all have to clarify whether the American actually committed the acts out of spontaneous excitement, as alleged, or whether the actions were planned, which the public prosecutor is convinced of.
This is also clear to his three defenders.
On the first day of the trial, they repeatedly asked the witnesses whether B. could see from the crime scene how steep the slope he pushed the women down actually was.
B. emphasized in his statement that he was not aware of the mortal danger to the women.
The strategy behind it seems obvious: the lawyers want to prove that B. did not push the two students down the slope with the intent to kill and that he committed his act on impulse.
However, the statement by lead investigator Jürgen Z. could be dangerous for this strategy.
“Without the dead wood, the two women would not have survived the fall,” he said.
He also impressively reported on countless porn videos that experts discovered in an encrypted folder on the defendant's cell phone.
Many of the clips contain violent sexual intercourse with unconscious Asian women or their rape.
Z. talked about hardcore porn.
It fits into this picture that B. also filmed the strangling and rape of Eva L. with his cell phone.
The two short clips - one lasts about two and a half minutes, one is only 39 seconds long - show, among other things, how B. strangles his victim with his black belt and abuses the unconscious woman.
In one of the clips you can also hear the two or three last breaths of the already unconscious L. before B. puts the belt around her neck and tightens it.
“You can still hear a squeaking, wheezing noise,” said the detective.
The public prosecutor's office assumes that the American made the videos in order to later gain sexual satisfaction while watching them.
The investigators also found child pornography material on the accused's cell phones.
In any case, online sex seems to have played a big role in B's life alongside online games, hiking and traveling, as can be seen from chat logs that Z. reported.
And he probably kept a file about his chat partners - including at least two women from Germany - and their health.
As Z. testified, B. himself secretly filmed his sister when she was still a minor.
Immediately after the crime, at 2:44 p.m., B. is said to have put his belt back on and moved the two videos to an encrypted folder on his cell phone.
“I was very impressed that people think so far after such an act,” said investigator Z. B. then had his cell phone guide him back to Marienbrücke via Google Maps.
He was finally arrested shortly before his destination.
The trial will continue next Monday, February 26th.
Among other things, the investigating judge at the time is to be questioned.
In addition, the taking of evidence on the legal medical and digital forensic reports is to begin.
You can read more about this on Monday here at www.kreisbote.de.