Police stand at a cordon near Freudenberg, Germany, where a 12-year-old girl was allegedly killed by two other children. Photo / via AP
Police stand at a cordon near Freudenberg, Germany, where a 12-year-old girl was allegedly killed by two other children. Photo / via AP
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
Germany has been plunged into a state of shock after a 12-year-old girl was knifed to death in a stabbing frenzy - and two schoolgirls, aged 12 and 13, confessed to the crime.
The victim, named only as Luise because of Germany’s strict privacy laws, went missing after leaving a friend’s house near Freudenberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia in the nation’s west.
Her body was found the following day in a wooded area not far from her home.
Police have confirmed she was stabbed more than 30 times with a small knife.
The two girls, who knew Luise, confessed to the crime after making statements to the police, said Florian Locker, head of Koblenz police’s homicide department.
However, because of German laws regarding criminal responsibility, they cannot be held criminally accountable for their actions as they are under the age of 14.
Although Luise had been friends with the two girls, reports suggest that they had fallen out prior to the incident.
German newspaper Bild reported that the two girls set upon their victim in an act of “revenge” after she told a teacher that they were bullying her.
The older suspect is said to have been in the same class as Luise, who attended the same school as both suspects.
The fatal stabbing of a schoolgirl, Luise, 12, by her classmates, 12 and 13, has rocked Germany. Photo / Polizei-Seigen Wittgenstein/News
Luise went round to the 13-year-old’s house on the day she was killed and was joined there by the other 12-year-old.
The three girls were later spotted walking into the nearby woods, but Luise did not return to the older girl’s house with them afterwards. The younger suspect was later picked up by her father.
Luise’s parents reported her missing after she failed to return home.
They had received phone calls from the older suspect who claimed Luise had started making her way home at 5.30pm, and that she had said she would call her when she got back.
The motive for the crime is still unknown, and the knife or knives used in the attack have not been found.
Dorothea Schupelus, a journalist at the German broadcaster WELT, claims she found a TikTok dance video which had been posted by one of the suspects the day after the murder.
It was filled with comments from classmates saying “How could you do this?” and “I can’t believe you’re posting a dance video the day after the murder”.
“When your chair in the classroom was empty this morning, we all knew what was going on,” another comment reportedly said.
Flowers and candles in a wooded area in Freudenberg, Germany, where the body of a 12-year-old girl was found. Photo / via AP
The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia expressed his condolences and promised that the authorities would do all they could to uncover the circumstances and motive behind the crime.
“It is incomprehensible and unbearable that children are capable of such horrible acts,” Hendrik Wuest said.
Local residents have paid their respects to Luise by laying flowers and lighting candles near the spot where her body was found. The police directorate has described the case as leaving them “speechless”.
“We lost our pupil, classmate and friend Luise at the weekend,” the Esther-Bejarano comprehensive school said in a statement provided to media.
“Far too early, she was violently torn from our midst and from her family. Our thoughts and wishes are with her family and friends now and in the coming days.” - news.com.au
