As of: March 15, 2024, 3:14 p.m
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Before the trial begins, the defendant sits in the courtroom between his lawyers Harald Bex (l) and Nikolai Doszna (r).
© Christoph Reichwein/dpa
The woman had been missing for almost seven years before her dismembered body was discovered.
The Aachen regional court has now convicted the husband of murder.
Aachen - On Friday, the Aachen regional court sentenced a 42-year-old man to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife.
The defendant pushed his wife down the stairs in the house in October 2016, said the presiding judge.
When the injured 29-year-old threatened to take him to prison, he suffocated or strangled her with a bag.
The defendant from the Heinsberg district also wanted to prevent her from taking the child away from him.
The man had described this process several times to undercover investigators who had been assigned to him.
The feature of murder is the concealment of another crime.
The defendant remained silent during the trial.
The deployment of the undercover police officers in the area around the now 42-year-old had significantly advanced the years-long investigation.
The craftsman, who has German and Polish citizenship, was the main suspect from the start after the woman disappeared without a trace in October 2016.
The woman had previously told him that she wanted to move to southern Germany with her son from her marriage and her new boyfriend.
But despite intensive searches, no body was found.
The woman's body, divided into two pieces, was discovered in a garage extension during a search at the man's new home address in August 2023.
Despite major financial problems, the man had kept the previous house in which he had lived with his family.
The man moved the body to other locations several times, the court heard.
dpa