42 years after nurse's murder: life sentence for ex-partner
Nearly four decades after the killing of a young nurse, a court in Aschaffenburg has sentenced the ex-partner to life imprisonment.
42 years after nurse's murder: life sentence for ex-partner
A court in Aschaffenburg has sentenced a 67-year-old man to life imprisonment for a fatal offence from 1984. The man had strangled his then 19-year-old ex-partner, a trainee nurse, in a nurses' hostel. This is reported by BILD.
The convicted man was only tracked down in Turkey last year, after he had gone into hiding for decades. Following the offence in 1984, he had fled with a plane ticket bound for Istanbul. Fourteen years later, he returned to Bavaria under a different name, where he was eventually identified by the public through a televised search.
During the trial, the accused denied intentionally killing the young woman. He admitted only to pulling at her scarf in anger. However, he was denied acquittal on grounds of statute of limitations.
The investigations revealed that the convicted man, after his arrival in Germany in the late seventies, had initially entered into a sham marriage to avoid deportation. After this relationship ended, he sought the company of the young trainee nurse. A marriage to her would have allowed him to remain in the country for longer.
However, when the 19-year-old fell in love with an American soldier and ended the relationship, the man pursued her and her new partner. Witnesses saw him waiting outside the hostel for the young woman.
The victim's sister attended the trial as a co-plaintiff. She expressed relief at the verdict and now hopes for closure after decades of uncertainty.
Source: BILD