German couple pose as volunteers to ‘murder Ukrainian refugee and steal her baby’

A German couple has confessed to killing a Ukrainian refugee and her mother as part of a plot to steal the young woman’s newborn baby.

The two defendants were accused of posing as volunteers, drugging the Ukrainian women, aged 27 and 51, and then leading them to a lake before killing them and fleeing with the baby, named Mia.

After police discovered the bodies, they tracked down both suspects and rescued Mia, who is now being looked after by the victim’s sister in Ukraine.

The two defendants, who under German privacy law have been identified only as Marco O, 43, and Ina O, 45, confessed to the killings via a statement from their lawyers at a court hearing this week.

The district court in Mannheim heard that the couple’s motive was to raise a daughter together, having struggled with miscarriages and failed fertility treatments.

They first made contact with their victims, Margarita R, 27, and Maryna S, 51, after joining a Telegram messaging group that was set up to help Ukrainian refugees with translation. They appeared to have posed as helpful volunteers in order to gain the trust of their victims.

The couple then took the Ukrainian women to a restaurant, where they furtively drugged them both with medication, offering to drive them to hospital once they felt unwell.

Instead, they drove to the secluded Krummes Loch fishing lake, where both Ukrainians were beaten to death with a hammer and their bodies burned.

‘I find myself disgusting’

German police discovered the bodies and launched a manhunt, which culminated in the arrest of the German couple and the rescue of baby Mia on March 13 last year. She has since been placed in the care of Eugenia, Margarita’s sister, in Ukraine.

“I committed these crimes with my husband. 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,” Ina said in a statement read out to the court by her lawyer, Bild tabloid reported.

In a separate statement to the court, which was read out by his lawyer, Marco added: “I confess completely. I committed the crimes with a rubber hammer, my wife was just standing by the car... I find myself disgusting. But on the day of the crime I took about one gram of cocaine and two grams of amphetamine.”

The trial continues.

- Telegraph