81-year-old dead: murder charges against pensioners
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The Salzburg public prosecutor’s office is now bringing murder charges against a 62-year-old pensioner. He is said to have killed an 81-year-old woman in an apartment building in the Maxglan district of Salzburg in August 2020. She had a total of 28 stab wounds.
An autopsy revealed that the woman bled to death. The accused has so far denied the crime. However, according to investigators, his DNA profile matches numerous comparison traces from the crime scene.
According to a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office, the charges are not yet legally binding. That’s why there is no trial date yet. The accused is in custody.
Found in Wiener Neustadt
He was arrested in September 2021, more than a year after the violent death of the pensioner, at his new place of residence in Wiener Neustadt. The previously blameless man lived from 2006 to early August 2021 in the same block of flats as the victim.
The investigators got on the trail of the man after criminal psychologist Thomas Müller first narrowed down the circle of potential perpetrators and the Salzburg public prosecutor’s office took a rather rare measure: They applied to the court for a DNA series test, which was finally carried out on all 37 single men from the block of flats with its 96 tiny apartments.
DNA screening was done at the time of arrest
The pensioner was willing to have the oral cavity swab carried out on him, it said. Then 13 pieces of DNA from the crime scene, which had been discovered under the fingernails of the dead, were assigned to the suspect. He enters every connection with the fact. According to his statements, he can only see the later victim and has never been with the woman in the apartment.
Accused denies the crime
The investigators limit the crime period to August 27th to 28th, 2020. The woman’s body was found by an acquaintance in her apartment on August 30. It featured 28 stitches – three on the back of the torso and 25 on the front – and was wrapped in a panel of fabric. During his interrogation, the accused said that although he owned this textile, he left it in the stairwell to be taken freely.
Motive still unclear
The apartment had been extensively cleansed of blood. A knife is considered the murder weapon. However, the weapon has not yet been found. The motive is a mystery. A financial interest of the perpetrator has not been assumed so far.