The body of 12-year-old Luise was found by police on Sunday in a wood near Freudenberg in western Germany.
Germany was shocked on Tuesday, March 14, when two teenage girls aged 12 and 13 confessed to having stabbed to death a 12-year-old classmate in a small town in the country. The case, revealed by the police and the prosecution during a press conference, is unprecedented in the recent history of Germany and remains exceptional on a European scale.
Luise had been missing since leaving the home of a friend she had visited late Saturday afternoon, not far from Freudenberg, in the west of the country, the town of 17,000 inhabitants where she resided. About three hours after his disappearance, his concerned parents had alerted the police. The lifeless body of their daughter was found by the police on Sunday in a wood a few kilometers from their home. “She died after losing a lot of blood from numerous stab wounds”, explained the prosecutor of Koblenz, Mario Mannweiler. He clarified that there was no “no evidence of any sexual assault”.
Teenage girls are ‘not criminally responsible’, prosecutor says
The two suspects “gave information about the case and finally confessed the facts”, said Florian Locker, the head of the Koblenz police, adding that their statements were consistent with the facts. The murder weapon has not yet been found.
The two pre-teens and Luise knew each other, added Mario Mannweiler, refusing however to give any additional details, in particular on the fact of knowing if they were in the same class or the same school. No element has also filtered on the identity of the suspects and the presumed motive for their act. “It is a complex subject and the reasons for their gesture must be analyzed according to their age”underlined Mario Mannweiler.
The two suspected girls were not known to the police. Under the age of 14, they are not “not criminally responsible”, noted Mario Mannweiler. They were handed over to social services and youth protection.
Investigators in shock
During the press conference, the investigators were obviously in shock. “After 40 years of service in the police, there are still events that leave us speechless”released the vice-president of the Koblenz police, Jürgen Süss. “The act itself is very exceptional and upsets us”added the prosecutor.
The head of government of the regional state of North Rhine-Westphalia (west), Hendrick Wüst, did not hide his emotion either. “It is difficult to imagine and bear that children are capable of such acts”, he said during a press briefing. According to this conservative leader, “the number of crimes and violent acts by adolescents or children under 14 has been increasing for several years”. He therefore called for more prevention work in this age group.
A message of condolence appeared on the website of Luise’s college in Freudenberg, a town about 80 kilometers from Bonn and Cologne, on Tuesday.