Police have launched a manhunt for Marcel Hesse. Photo / AP
Police have launched a manhunt for Marcel Hesse. Photo / AP
The stepfather of a child murdered by a 'thrill killer' who allegedly posted a video and photos of his victim on the Internet has told how he found the boy in the cellar of the house next door.
Jaden, 9, was reportedly lured into the house in the German town of Herne by 19-year-old Marcel Hesse who is now being hunted by Interpol across the continent.
Police say Hesse, a martial arts fanatic, stabbed Jaden in the cellar and recorded the brutal murder. It is unclear whether there was a sexual motive, reports Daily Mail.
Pascal R, 34, said: "The picture of my stepson lying there dead...I will never forget this. I found him lying in a giant lake of his own blood."
Detectives on a specially formed murder squad believe Hesse may have killed another person.
They said he appeared on an Internet chat room in the hours following the killing to say he had attacked a woman, adding: "She offered more resistance than the child."
He mentioned using "torture" to get the woman's bank details and pin number.
Hesse had lived in the house where he killed Jaden for many years with his parents, but he was home alone since the beginning of the year with his sister Sandra after his mother and father moved.
Jaden's mother Jeanette F, 41, told the Bild newspaper in Germany; "Sandy told us once that her brother was an absolute psycho."
A huge manhunt is underway, but police admit they have little idea where the suspected killer may have gone. Photo / AP
Pascal told the paper; "We had been shopping, my wife and I. Maurice and Steven, his stepbrothers, and Jaden stayed at home."
He said he had been told that at 6pm on Monday evening the doorbell rang and Hesse asked Jaden if he could come to his home to help him set up a pair of ladders.
When the parents returned home two hours later Jaden had not returned home. Pascal said: "I went over and banged and yelled but no-one answered.
"Something bad has happened," Jeanette remembered saying to her husband.
Pascal and his stepsons entered the cellar and saw Jaden, who had been stabbed more than 40 times.
The body of the boy was discovered by police in the cellar of a house by his stepfather. Photo / AP
"I wanted to give him a massage on his heart but blood was streaming from his wounds," said Pascal.
Police said the boy was stabbed as Hesse allegedly filmed his demise and posted video and stills on the so-called Darknet - the unpatrolled side of cyberspace specialising in pornography, paedophilia, drugs and 'snuff movies'.
It was a Darknet user - who claimed to know the killer - who contacted police to tell them: "I have just seen a boy murdered on the internet."
The alleged killer entered a chatroom after the murder and held his bloodstained hands up to the camera.
