An original translation by Egri Nok with much thanks

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Dec 03, 2016

Murdered student in Freiburg: a dyed hair led to a hot scent

After the murders in Freiburg, police arrested a 17 year old afghan refugee. His hairstyle revealed him. This case will be a matter for debate.

Dec 12, 2016, by Rüdiger Soldt

Photo caption: A large crowd at the press conference where police Saturday announced the arrest. It will now provide matter for debate.

It was only Friday morning in Freiburg when Martin Jäger (Christian Democrats), Secretary of State in the Ministry of Interior in Baden-Württemberg, announced to send 25 additional police forces to the city which has been shaken by two sex killings.

At 12.30 pm on the same day, the police were able to arrest the alleged murderer of the 19-year-old medical student Maria L. in the Freiburg district of Littenweiler: a 17-year-old Afghan refugee living with the family; he had illegally come to the student town in southern Baden as a so-called “unaccompanied underage refugee” (UMA), in 2015.

In the night of October 15th to 16th, the medical student Maria L., daughter of a high-ranking, EU official, was raped near the Black Forest Stadium, and was found drowned shortly thereafter later in the river Dreisam. It remains to be clarified by further investigation whether she was unconscious and thrown into the Dreisam river after the rape, or if the murderer drowned her violently.

Unclear, if victim and perpetrator knew each other

The young woman was on her bicycle on her way back from the “Big Medi Night”, a party of the medical students, and was assaulted on the illumindated bicycle lane around 3:00 o’clock in the morning.

Police searched the crime scene thoroughly and had the branches of a blackberry bush on the banks of the river Dreisam cut and analysed. In the hedge, the investigators found an approximately 18.5 centimeter (7.3 inches) long hair. “It was this optically striking hair in the thorn bush that caught our attention“, says Müller.

The dyed hair was the basis of further research. Over several days, criminal investigators analysed the video recordings from the street tram line 1, which leads to the vicinity of the crime scene. Video recordings with a volume of 13 terabytes had to be sifted. The officers noted a young man with an “undercut haircut”, who had dyed one braid. “After the technical review of the video recordings, the man could then be screened and checked on December 2,” said Müller.

It is still unclear whether the refugee met his later victim accidentally at the river Dreisam, or whether he knew the medical student. It still needs to be ascertained whether there is a connection to the murder of the jogger Carolin G., who had been raped and murdered in broad daylight on a path in the vineyards at the beginning of November in the town of Endingen, Kaiserstuhl. Until now, the investigators can not see any connection, the course of events are said to have been very different, and there is currently no utilisable DNA material. In the region – and especially in the social networks – rumors are circulating that it could be a serial killer. There is no proof for this.

Politicians have been demanding more police in Freiburg for years

The murders in Freiburg have also led to a political discussion about the personnel staffing of the police and investigation impediments in the analysis of DNA traces. Police have been demanding a better staffing of the police in Freiburg for almost ten years. The situation in the Dreiländereck has the city suffering from a high degree of criminality, although no serious crimes.

Justice Minister Guido Wolf (Christian Democrats) is campaigning to have the criminal code changed, so that the color of the eyes, skin or hair, can be determined based on DNA samples. Because of the narrow paragraph 81g of the Criminal Procedure Code, the use of DNA traces for the police is limited, it is not allowed to draw conclusions about the ethnicity of perpetrators, which would constitute a serious interference with fundamental rights.

There have been problems with young refugees for some time now

The 2004 Criminal Procedure Code states: “In the investigation, it is not allowed to draw any findings other than those required to identify the DNA identification pattern as well as the sex.” Justice Minister Wolf advocates to utilize “all constitutional approaches ” in the future. The “Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter” (German Confederation of Criminal Investigators) also considers the existing regulation to be no longer up-to-date.

In Freiburg, there have for quite some time been problems with underaged unaccompanied foreigners, who are cared for by the youth aid of charitable institutions. There have been occasional sexual harassments. This group of refugees has repeatedly stood out with battery and drug dealing at the Stühlinger Kirchplatz near the Train Station. Also in this respect, this case will provide material for debate.

[Editor: Below, a video of the chief of the union of German police discussing this exact issue from a couple of weeks ago:]

Photo of one of the victims:

Additional info thanks to Oz-Rita and Xanthippa