Rostock murder trial: missing camping knife and incriminating phone calls burden defendants
In the murder trial of eight-year-old Fabian, neighbour Olaf K. testified about a missing knife and intercepted phone calls with defendant Gina H.
Witness reports missing knife and alibi arrangements with Gina H.
On the twelfth day of proceedings at Rostock Regional Court, witness Olaf K. testified for almost six hours—about a knife that had suddenly disappeared and mysteriously reappeared, and about phone calls in which defendant Gina H. apparently pressured him to arrange an alibi. This is reported by BILD.
Eight-year-old Fabian was murdered on 10 October 2025. Olaf K., a native of Saxony and Gina H.'s direct neighbour since 2020, noticed twelve days after the boy went missing that his old camping knife was gone. It usually lay in the gate of his shed and was used for everyday tasks. When he noticed this, it was already known that Fabian had been killed by multiple stab wounds. He feared he himself would come under suspicion.
Knife appears in cardboard box—without blood traces
Together with Gina H., Olaf K. searched for the knife. According to his account, the two of them went through everything—including a cardboard box in which the knife had never been before. When he checked again later that afternoon, it lay there exactly. He then handed the camping knife over to the police.
A forensic pathologist had already testified in the trial that the murder weapon was very likely a single-edged knife with a blade length of ten to 15 centimetres. Olaf K.'s knife has a blade of approximately ten centimetres. However, two examinations revealed no blood or DNA traces.
Intercepted phone calls: alibi arrangement just one day after the crime
In court, intercepted phone conversations between Olaf K. and Gina H. were played. In them, the defendant pressed him to arrange alibis for the day of the crime just one day after the act—at a time when officially nobody yet knew that Fabian was dead.
According to his own account, Olaf K. nevertheless harboured no suspicion. He repeatedly emphasised to judge Holger Schütt: "I could never connect these two things, that they had anything to do with what happened."
The relationship between the two neighbours was close. Olaf K. helped her in everyday life, regularly bought her small things and had even entered her as a beneficiary of his accident insurance. She occasionally sent him explicit pictures. Today he believes she wanted to keep him in good humour that way.
Joint outing to the discovery site at night
On the evening of 13 October 2025, Gina H. drove with Olaf K. to the location where Fabian's body was found. Shortly before, she had already visited the location with her acquaintance Christian D. Olaf K. packed a torch and both drove off in his car.
During the drive, Gina H. switched off her mobile phone—unusual for him, as he testified, although he did not question it. At the discovery site, he shone his torch into the dead boy's face. He did not recognise Fabian; Gina H., by contrast, identified him immediately.
On the way back, she asked whether she should call the police. His answer, according to his own account: "What do you want to tell the police? You're out in the middle of the night at the marshland in the middle of nowhere? What are you going to tell them?" Once home, Gina H. laughed and said that she had cried so much over the past few days that she could no longer do so.
"I pray to God that they don't have cameras there"
In further intercepted phone calls, Gina H. repeatedly spoke about possible wildlife cameras near the discovery site. According to the recorded material played, she said: "I pray to God that they don't have cameras there." Olaf K. tried to reassure her: "If you're not involved in it, you don't need to worry."
When Gina H. was arrested on 6 November 2025, Olaf K. broke off contact with her for good. The trial will continue on 18 June.
Source: BILD