Trials: Defendant remains silent in trial for murder of student

2023-10-12 10:43:58

The defendant remains silent in the trial for the murder of a student

After the student’s death, police divers in Aschau im Chiemgau searched the Prien riverbed for traces. photo

© Peter Kneffel/dpa

A young woman parties in a club until dawn. She sets off home but never arrives. A passerby finds her body in the river. Now there is a suspect – but he is silent.

In the process of the The defendant refused to testify about the murder of a student in Aschau im Chiemgau at the beginning of the trial. He will “not comment on the matter or the person in advance,” said one of his lawyers on Thursday in the Traunstein regional court. However, the defense reserved the right that the 21-year-old could comment at a later date.

“Maybe you’ll think about it,” said presiding judge Jacqueline Aßbichler to the defendant. “What will be missing in this circumstantial process will always be the motivation, the special situation,” she emphasized. “It’s like a puzzle.”

The case shocked the region: a year ago, the 23-year-old was killed after visiting a club. She had celebrated in the Aschau club “Eiskeller” and made her way home early in the morning of October 3rd.

But she never arrived home. A passerby found the young woman’s body hours later in the Prien River. Around six weeks after the crime, the 21-year-old was arrested on suspicion of the crime. He has not yet commented on the allegations.

The man is said to have been jogging on the night of October 3rd a year ago. The public prosecutor’s office accuses him of following the young woman on her way home from the “ice cellar”, attacking her for sexual reasons and throwing her, seriously injured, into the Bärbach, which flows into the Prien. According to the prosecution, she drowned.

dpa