Life sentence for 81-year-old: murder of US student Amy Lopez in Koblenz atoned for after 32 years
A Koblenz court sentenced Hans S. (81) to life imprisonment with particularly grave culpability for the murder of US student Amy Lopez.
Life sentence after 32 years: verdict in Amy Lopez murder case
The Koblenz Regional Court sentenced Hans S. (81) on Friday at 11:10 to life imprisonment for the murder of US student Amy Lopez – with particularly grave culpability. As reported by BILD, the defendant entered the courtroom with a walker and followed the verdict without apparent emotion.
Presiding judge Rupert Stehlin described it as a "deliberately and systematically carried out act to satisfy sexual urges". Court spokesperson Eva Maria Kahn added that Amy Lopez had been "a random victim of the defendant", "who deliberately sought out a female rape victim". He had accepted her death from the outset. The finding of particularly grave culpability excludes release after the regular minimum sentence of 15 years.
The act of 26 September 1994
Amy Lopez was 24 years old and wanted to visit the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz and stay in a youth hostel. Hans S. lived about 300 metres away at that time. He had a knife and handcuffs with him, approached Amy and lured her into a secluded room in the fortress. There he restrained and raped her, then stabbed her nine times and struck her with a stone. Playing children discovered the body. The perpetrator fled by bicycle.
For decades there was no trace. Hans S. had been known to police since the 1960s and had been convicted multiple times for rape – including in 1999 to seven years imprisonment for an attempted rape of a 16-year-old – but there was no concrete suspicion in the Lopez case. Only a new DNA analysis eventually led to him. He was arrested in a care home and stood trial from mid-August.
Victim's father observed sentencing
Amy's father Robert Rimbau (86) had given his daughter the European trip in 1994. Together with his son Walter (59) he travelled from the USA to Koblenz to participate in the sentencing as a co-plaintiff. The two sat directly opposite Hans S. They declined to make a statement to the press.
Their lawyer Kathrin Kienle explained that the family had not been able to come to terms with Amy's death all these years as long as the murderer remained at large: "I hope they will now find this peace."
Guilty plea on final day of trial
Until the end of the proceedings, Hans S. showed no remorse and offered no apology. After the verdict was announced, he merely stated: "I accept the verdict. The only thing I can still make good is that I admit my guilt."
After more than three decades of waiting, the Lopez family now has a final guilty verdict. Hans S. is unlikely to leave prison alive.
Source: BILD