Ex-partner sentenced to life imprisonment: Jennifer Scharinger murder trial ends
The 33-year-old ex-partner of Jennifer Scharinger was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder on Thursday and ordered to be admitted to a forensic therapeutic centre.
Life imprisonment for Jennifer Scharinger's murderer
Vienna. The 33-year-old ex-partner of Jennifer Scharinger was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Vienna jury court on Thursday. The court also ordered his admission to a forensic therapeutic centre. As Google News AT — Crime (de) reports, the verdict is not yet final: defence lawyer Astrid Wagner filed both a nullity complaint and an appeal.
The 21-year-old law student was killed in her flat in Vienna-Brigittenau on the morning of 21 January 2018. After that, she disappeared without trace — for almost eight years.
"He strangled her in cold blood"
"He strangled her in cold blood," the prosecutor said at the start of the trial. "He could not accept her decision to leave him." She explicitly demanded the maximum sentence for a crime that had remained undetected for nearly eight years.
The defendant confessed at the beginning of his interrogation: "I plead fully guilty to murder." When asked by the presiding judge, he admitted that it had "escalated due to my fault." When Scharinger told him to disappear, it had been "too much." "So you made her disappear," the judge countered.
In her reasoning for the verdict, the presiding judge cited as an aggravating factor that the act was committed in the victim's flat — a place where one would not expect an attack. The defendant had "strangled the woman for several minutes" and acted "in a cruel manner out of anger."
Control obsession and personality disorder
The prosecutor told the jury that the two had been in a relationship for approximately eighteen months at the time of the crime. The man had exercised "absolute control" over Scharinger but claimed "freedom of action" for himself to maintain contact with other women via social networks. The psychiatric expert Peter Hofmann found that the defendant had a severe and persistent personality disorder: whilst he was criminally responsible, he had an emotionally unstable personality with strong narcissistic tendencies and pronounced control obsession. He responded aggressively to rejection.
Eight years of uncertainty — mother created fake profile
Scharinger had been reported missing since January 2018. Her ex-partner denied any involvement at the time; investigations against him on suspicion of unlawful detention were discontinued in April 2019.
Only in 2025 did new investigative leads emerge. The mother of the deceased played a central role in this, never having given up the search for her daughter. Together with an acquaintance, she created a false profile on a dating platform and began chatting with the alleged murderer. In this chat, the defendant eventually described in detail how one could dispose of a body without leaving traces — which brought him back into the sights of law enforcement.
In December 2025, he made a confession. According to this, he had placed Scharinger in a box after the act and transported her away. He first buried her in the area around Großweikersdorf in Tulln district, later moving her remains near the Allentsteig military training ground in Zwettl district. The body was found there after the confession.
Relatives: "It was only about the defendant"
"For eight years the mother searched for her daughter — with hundreds of police officers, with excavations that she financed herself," said Andreas Schweitzer, the legal representative of the mother, with regard to the family's years of uncertainty. He criticised that Jennifer Scharinger had been given too little space in the trial: "It was only about the defendant." Her disappearance had psychologically "destroyed" not only the mother but also the sister and the nephew and niece of the deceased. Schweitzer emphasised: "She was successful in her studies. She was a person who loved life."
The court awarded the mother 20,000 euros in bereavement compensation, the sister 15,000 euros. The relatives were referred to civil proceedings for further claims — such as damages for shock.
Vigil in front of the court
Parallel to the verdict announcement, a vigil by the "Alliance Against Femicide and All Forms of Violence Against Women" took place in front of the building. The activists demanded a "fair punishment for Jenni's murderer" and appropriate compensation for the relatives. The alliance also calls for an independent investigation commission to clarify "why it took eight years until the perpetrator was finally arrested."
Source: Google News AT — Crime (de)