Cold Case - Murder of stewardess: Six DNA matches discovered
At the body of the stewardess who was murdered 17 years ago in Velbert near Essen, six DNA matches of the accused suspect were found. A DNA expert from the Landeskriminalamt NRW testified in the trial at the Wuppertal District Court: "For me, all of this speaks for a direct and not an indirect transfer route." The expert explained. "I assume direct contact with such clear cell material."
Several DNA matches were found on the back of the corpse, on the right and left arms, and an incomplete partial track on the chair. In response to the defender's question why no foreign DNA was found on the plastic bag that covered the head of the corpse, the expert stated that the bag was completely soaked in the victim's cell material. Other DNA was present in it.
Murder for hire?
In this trial, a man suspected of being the murderer for hire is standing before the court. He is accused of killing the flight attendant on behalf of her husband. She had separated from him, and he had moved to Hesse shortly after the murder. The husband had shot himself in the head in Hesse a short time after the murder.
The son, who was then a minor, discovered his mother's body at home when he came from school. She lay in a large pool of blood with a belt around her neck.
The accused denies the crime. He had brought the later murderer to the crime scene but was unaware of his murderous intentions at the time and had not known about them. The husband's acquaintance had been arrested in Hesse the previous year and had been in pretrial detention since then.
He is a 58-year-old recidivist violent offender from the Hessian Wetterau region. He had served an eight-year sentence in prison for a series of eleven robberies at gas stations. In the time of the offense, he was reportedly in severe financial difficulties. His DNA traces on the body he explained by saying that he had discovered the woman lying on the ground and felt for her pulse.
Mystery man at the door
Claudia K. was brutally murdered in her apartment on February 1, 2007, with a heavy object and strangled with a belt. When the unsolved murder case, known as the "Cold Case," was taken up by investigators, DNA evidence from the crime scene could be matched to the 58-year-old.
Witnesses reported seeing a man at the door during the time of the crime. The sketch made based on their description resembles, according to investigators, the defendant.
He knew the victim and had never been in her apartment, the accused stated in his testimony in 2007. However, this statement now contradicts the evidence.
The flight attendant had separated from her husband some months prior to the murder, who had then moved to Hesse. Witnesses from her immediate environment reported that he had threatened to kill or have her killed. In his farewell letter, he had left no confession.
- The Cold Case of Claudia K., who was murdered in her Velbert apartment 13 years ago, has recently seen new developments due to circumstantial evidence and DNA matches.
- The suspect, a man from Hesse with a questionable past, had served time in prison for a series of robberies and was suspected to be in financial difficulties at the time of the murder.
- DNA traces of the suspect were found on the victim's person and at the crime scene, providing strong evidence against him.
- Witnesses reported seeing a man at the door during the time of the crime, and a sketch made from their description resembles the suspect's appearance.
- The suspect previously claimed he had never been in the victim's apartment, but this statement now contradicts the DNA evidence and the witnesses' testimonies.
- The victim's acquisition of a restraining order against her husband and his alleged threats towards her only serve to heighten the suspicion of murder.
- The LKA North Rhine-Westphalia and the authorities in Hesse are now working together to build a strong case against the accused, aiming for a successful conclusion to the Cold Case of Claudia K.
