Iraqi refugee suspected in murder of 14-year-old girl leaves Germany, police say

Timothy Jones | Deutsche Welle

A 20-year-old Iraqi refugee urgently wanted by police for questioning over the death of a 14-year-old girl from the German city of Mainz has left Germany, police said on Thursday.

They said the man had recently been living in a refugee shelter in the Erbenheim district of Wiesbaden, the city where the girl's body was found on Wednesday.

According to the head of the police for western Hesse, Stefan Müller, the man appeared to have left Germany several days ago in haste, together with his parents and five siblings. He said the suspect probably came to Germany in October 2015 via Turkey and Greece, along with a wave of other refugees.

The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said the man and his family had returned to Iraq to escape prosecution.

The man had been the girl's boyfriend, according to the Wiesbadener Tagblatt.

Police said another suspect in the case, a 35-year-old male Turkish asylum-seeker, had been arrested.

Police found the body of the girl buried among thick undergrowth near a single-track railway line. They said current indications were that the girl had been raped and then strangled to death.

Police were alerted after the victim, named in the media only as Susanna, had not returned home from an outing on May 22 with friends to the inner city of Wiesbaden, situated some 17 kilometers (10.4 miles) from Mainz.