The husband and wife said that they killed the women and took the child because they “really wanted to have a daughter”
A German couple have confessed to murdering two female Ukrainian migrants and stealing the younger victim’s baby. A court heard how the killers posed as volunteers who could help the Ukrainians with translation, in a ploy to abduct the newborn infant.
The two defendants, identified as 43-year-old ‘Marco’ and his 45-year-old wife ‘Ina’, appeared in court in the southern city of Mannheim on Tuesday, where they admitted to killing a 27-year-old Ukrainian and her 51-year-old mother last March.
In an earlier hearing, prosecutors described how the victims were living in accommodation for Ukrainian asylum seekers in the town of Wiesloch when they met the couple, who had offered their services on a Telegram group, Deutsche Welle reported.
When the 27-year-old gave birth to a baby in February, they allegedly began hatching a plan to kill her and take the infant.
The couple took the two Ukrainian women to a restaurant in early March and slipped sedatives into their drinks, prosecutors said. They allegedly drove the older woman to a lake where the man beat her to death, then took the younger woman to a dam where she was killed in the same manner, before the man set her body on fire.
The young woman’s remains were found within hours, while police divers discovered the older woman’s body several weeks later. The baby was taken from the couple unharmed and the two suspects were taken into custody.
Speaking in court on Tuesday via his lawyers, the man said that he and his wife already have four children and were willing to kill to have another baby of their own, after enduring multiple miscarriages and failed fertility treatments.
”I regret everything I have done,” the man said in his statement. “We really wanted to have a daughter together, that was my wife’s most fervent wish.”
“I committed these crimes with my husband,” the woman said in her statement. “I made a big mistake that weighs heavily on me. Little Mia is without a mother and my children no longer have a mother either,” she said, referring to the infant by name.
The couple are accused of two counts of joint murder and one count of child abduction. Mannheim District Court has scheduled nine days of hearings until the end of February. The child now lives with her aunt in Ukraine.
