The suspect was arrested in the spring on suspicion of murder, as announced by the public prosecutor and the police in Bochum in April. According to the court, the then 21-year-old gave birth to her first son in October 2010. Their second son was born in September of the following year. In November 2011 she first suffocated her two-month-old child, possibly because she was overwhelmed. Only when the baby stopped breathing did she alert the emergency services.
The child was revived and taken to a hospital in the Recklinghausen district, where it died a day later. A death investigation and a forensic examination did not yield any concrete findings that would have justified criminal proceedings. At the time, it was assumed that the baby had died due to a medical emergency.
In mid-May 2012, the suspect tried to suffocate her second child, who was now 19 months old. In this case, too, she only let go of the boy when she thought his breathing had stopped. Despite being revived by the notified emergency services, the toddler died in hospital nine days later. Again, the results of the autopsy would not have justified criminal proceedings against the mother.
In December 2015, the woman gave birth to a third child. When this was two years and four months old, she tried to suffocate this child as well. It survived and was taken to a Bochum hospital for further treatment.
The investigations of a doctor at the hospitals and a more recent forensic report finally triggered the investigation, the authorities said in April. According to the information, an urgent suspicion against the woman was confirmed, whereupon a pre-trial arrest warrant was issued for double murder and dangerous bodily harm. The process that has now started is scheduled to run until the end of December.
