Murder trial without body ends in life in prison
In a circumstantial trial, a 38-year-old is sentenced to life imprisonment for murder motivated by greed. Without the victim's body, the court must consider alternative possibilities besides a violent death. However, the outcome is clear.
In a murder trial without a body, the Regional Court of Bielefeld has sentenced the 38-year-old defendant to life imprisonment. The court is convinced that the circumstantial evidence clearly shows that the defendant killed the businessman from Hüllhorst in Ostwestfalen for financial gain nearly a year ago, said presiding judge Sven-Helge Kleine in the verdict.
According to the case law of the Federal Court of Justice, the death of a person can be legally established without a body. However, strict requirements must be met in the evaluation of evidence in a circumstantial trial. This was the case here, said Kleine.
In the process of elimination, the court considered possible alternatives. The defendant maintained in his final statement that he had nothing to do with the 66-year-old's death. He believes that the businessman is living abroad and enjoying life or committed suicide. "All of this has been disproven in the trial," said the presiding judge. It has been proven that the 38-year-old killed the businessman out of financial desperation in the fall of 2023 to obtain his property and assets.
The 66-year-old's car was found in the Netherlands after his disappearance. The investigators found the matching car key, the vehicle registration, credit card, passport, and a Bulgarian ID card belonging to the presumed victim with the defendant. Furthermore, a handwriting expert concluded that the 38-year-old had forged the presumed dead man's signature on a note. A cadaver dog alerted on the businessman's property. Additionally, the crime scene investigation found the 66-year-old's blood there and the defendant's DNA in the sports car.
The verdict is not yet final. The defense attorneys immediately announced after the verdict that they would challenge the guilty verdict through an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice.
Although the victim's body was not found, the investigators gathered compelling evidence that implicated the defendant in the murder. The absence of the body did not hinder the court from establishing the defendant's guilt, focusing on the strong body of evidence presented about the crime.
