More than 28 years after the death of a 13-year-old in Lower Franconia, the Würzburg district court did not allow charges against a suspect. It was not very likely that the evidence and circumstantial evidence was sufficient for a conviction for murder, the court said on Tuesday. “It is true that the accused may be involved in a possible crime.” Nevertheless, the evidence did not allow for a reliable reconstruction of a course of events that could prove a murder charge. “All other possible criminal offenses are now statute-barred, so that only a conviction for murder could be made.”
Last December, the Würzburg public prosecutor charged the man with murder. The 17-year-old at the time of the crime is said to have killed the girl named Sabine shortly before Christmas 1993 in Karlstadt (Main-Spessart district). The suspect from the Main-Spessart district had already been arrested in January 2021 after renewed searches on suspicion of murder.
The man was released a few weeks later. However, the investigation proceeded. The man was previously the focus of investigators. The public prosecutor’s office has not given any information on his possible motive since then. The investigators also had another suspect in their sights. However, his case was dropped due to a lack of evidence.
The victim was last seen on a farm in the Wiesenfeld district. The girl’s jacket and clothes were later found in a cesspool there – but not the 13-year-old. When the heavy concrete cover of an isolated manure pit was lifted, investigators discovered the body. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the student died as a result of massive violence.
