A ten-year-old girl is killed in a children’s home in Upper Franconia – now, after several weeks, the case has taken a surprising turn. The police have a new suspect – and assume a sex crime.
A 25-year-old man from the Wunsiedel district is in custody, the public prosecutor and the police announced today. There is a suspicion of a homicide and a sex crime. So far, only an eleven-year-old boy was suspected of having been involved in the crime. Like the victim, he lived in the home in Wunsiedel. The suspicion against him persists.
The man now suspected was provisionally arrested yesterday. A comparison of secured traces resulted in a match, it said.
Details of crime and perpetrator
The suspect was not an employee of the child welfare facility, said Matthias Goers, spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Hof, the German Press Agency. It initially remained unclear what relationship the man could have to the home. According to the police, the German has not yet admitted the allegation.
The forensic examination of the corpse had shown that the girl died from “violence against the neck”, as it was further said. In addition, the suspicion of a sexual offense was confirmed for the investigators by further reports.
So far, the crime has looked like an alleged act among residents of the facility, parallels have been drawn to similar cases in which children and young people of the same age have committed violence against one another. The suspicion of involvement in the crime against the eleven-year-old continues to exist, said Goers. The boy had been questioned in the meantime, but had not yet commented on the crime.
The ten-year-old died on the night of April 4th. The police and prosecutors did not say whether the children’s home was also the scene of the crime or whether the girl was brought into the room. No information is given about the possible crime scene, said police spokesman Alexander Czech.
The child was found dead in the room in the child and youth welfare facility in Wunsiedel in the morning. The police ruled out a natural cause of death, so investigations began. The “Soko Park” has 40 employees. According to the announcement, there is still a lot of further work to be done: the exact course of the crime must be clarified as well as the motive. So far, extensive trace material has been secured on the extensive area and in the buildings of the facility.
Facility helps with education
The child and youth welfare facility blends inconspicuously into the image of the 9,200-inhabitant town. There is a fence, but the facility is not hermetically sealed.
According to the agency, around 90 children and young adults between the ages of 3 and 19 can be cared for there. The staff of the house also consists of about 90 employees. The specialist facility is there for young people and their families who need help with education, according to the website of the house.
The provider, the Catholic youth welfare service of the diocese of Regensburg, did not want to comment on the new developments on request today and referred to the ongoing investigations by the police and public prosecutor’s office.
