The human bones found by mushroom pickers in a forest near Großburgwedel in the Hanover region are the body of the 56-year-old woman who was stabbed to death in her arbor on Lake Würmsee in September 2022. A DNA comparison confirmed the woman’s identity, the police in Hanover announced on Thursday. In September 2023, a 55-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the 56-year-old. The body had not been found until then.
After mushroom pickers between Fuhrberg and Großburgwedel discovered the human bones a week ago, there was increasing evidence of a connection with the violent crime in Würmsee. After an autopsy, it was clear that the bones came from a woman who was the victim of a violent crime.
Autopsy and DNA comparison bring certainty
According to investigators, because the body was so badly decomposed, it was not possible to determine the cause of death on site. Thanks to the autopsy and the DNA comparison, the body could now be identified without any doubt, the police said.
According to the court, in the trial of the Würmsee murder, numerous clues such as blood and DNA traces had convicted the 55-year-old father of the family as the perpetrator – even if the woman’s body had not been found until then. The judges were convinced that the German from Warburg in East Westphalia attacked the 56-year-old, who lived alone, in her arbor on the night of September 11, 2022. Neither of them knew each other before. The defendant stabbed the unsuspecting and defenseless woman as she lay in her bed at night in order to exert power, said presiding judge Martin Grote when the verdict was announced in September.
