Sam Amico
In one of the most bizarre cases in Germany’s history, and perhaps the rest of the world, a Munich woman has been arrested for murdering her online lookalike for the purpose of faking her own death and starting a new life, authorities say.
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The case is being called the “doppelganger murder” by the media in the German state of Bavaria.
The woman, aged 23, set up several social media accounts to find any person who looked as much like her as possible, according to investigators. Once she located this person, the suspect, and her friend set out to kill her.
Somehow, the suspect managed to arrange a meeting with the victim, likely through conversations on social media. The victim was later found with multiple stab wounds.
“Investigations revealed contact with several young ladies during a period of few weeks,” police spokesperson Andreas Aichele told NBC News. “Investigators assume that under a pretext she managed to organize a meeting with the later victim. Together with the 23-year-old male she traveled to the Heilbronn region to pick her up and carry out the planned murder.”
Initially, police believed the stabbing victim to be the suspect or the woman who committed the murder. But then they discovered that the suspect was actually alive. During this time, authorities informed the suspect’s parents that she had died. Then they had to go back and tell her parents that she was alive—but being arrested for murder.
Apparently, the stabbing took place in a wooded area. Both women are of German-Iraqi descent, authorities said.
Per German law, the names of victims and suspects are not released to the public.
Per NBC News: “Fiona Brookman, a professor of criminology at the University of South Wales, called the case ‘very unusual,’ not least because females make up 10% or less of homicide cases. Female-on-female cases are even rarer,” she added.
Peter Kneffel / dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images file
