A German couple has been charged with murdering two Ukrainian refugees in Baden-Württemberg. The couple allegedly killed a 27-year-old woman and her 51-year-old mother to claim the younger woman’s baby as their own.
(Source: René Priebe/pr-video/dpa/dpa-bilder)
The Mannheim public prosecutor’s office has filed murder charges against a married couple for the deaths of two Ukrainian women in March. The 44-year-old woman and her 43-year-old husband from Sandhausen near Heidelberg are accused of killing the 27-year-old Ukrainian refugee and her mother to take possession of the younger woman’s five-week-old baby. They are also charged with child abduction.
According to the prosecutor, the couple had long harbored an unfulfilled desire for a daughter of their own. By March 2023, they had allegedly planned to kidnap a newborn girl and pass her off as their child.
The plot unfolds
The wife reportedly sought out contact with Ukrainian refugees deliberately, joining a Telegram group dedicated to supporting them. There, she met the 27-year-old victim, who was seeking translation help for her upcoming childbirth. At the time of the crime, the mother, grandmother, and baby were housed in a refugee shelter in the Rhine-Neckar district.
After the baby’s birth in February, the couple allegedly decided to kill both the mother and grandmother. On March 6, they secretly administered sedative medication to both women during a restaurant visit. When the 51-year-old grandmother began feeling unwell, the couple first took the 27-year-old and her baby home, claiming they would take the grandmother to the hospital.
Instead, they allegedly drove the older woman to an angler’s lake near Bad Schönborn. The husband reportedly struck her repeatedly on the head with an unknown object before submerging her in the lake, where she died from her injuries.
The couple then picked up the 27-year-old and her baby, falsely claiming her mother had suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital. They drove to Hockenheim near the Rhine dam, where the husband allegedly killed the young woman. The couple then set fire to her body and took the infant home.
Aftermath and legal proceedings
On March 7, a passerby discovered the 27-year-old’s body on the Rhine riverbank. The couple was arrested on March 13, and the baby was found unharmed in their care. Police divers recovered the grandmother’s body from the lake on March 19.
The couple remains in pre-trial detention and has not yet commented on the allegations. The now seven-month-old baby lived with a foster family for several months before the victims’ 21-year-old sister became the child’s guardian. In late June, she returned to Ukraine with the baby, where adoption proceedings have been initiated but may take months to complete.
