Life sentence for 81-year-old: Murder of US tourist Amy Lopez in Koblenz prosecuted after 32 years
An 81-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment in Koblenz for the murder of American tourist Amy Lopez in 1994. Old DNA traces led to a breakthrough after decades.
Conviction after three decades: Life sentence for murder of US tourist in Koblenz
The Koblenz Regional Court has sentenced an 81-year-old man to life imprisonment for the murder of US tourist Amy Lopez. The presiding judge Rupert Stehlin announced the verdict more than 32 years after the crime. According to n-tv, the court also determined the particularly serious nature of the guilt.
The chamber thereby followed the agreed assessments of the public prosecutor's office, representatives of the secondary prosecution, and the defence. The defendant had already admitted to the act at the beginning of the trial.
According to the court's conviction, the man lured the then 24-year-old Lopez in September 1994 near the fortress Ehrenbreitstein into a remote, vacant building. There he restrained her, sexually abused her, and killed her with nine knife wounds. Children playing discovered the body shortly after the crime.
The case remained unsolved for decades. The decisive breakthrough came from the evaluation of old DNA traces using modern forensic methods. The material could be uniquely assigned to the 81-year-old. At the end of February 2026, he was subsequently arrested in a care home in the Koblenz area.
Source: n-tv