Man shoots guests

3 dead in Bad Vöslau: it was a double murder and suicide

Investigators and forensics at the crime scene in Bad Vöslau

(Bild: MAX SLOVENCIK / APA / picturedes.com ; Thomas Lenger/Monatsrevue)

After the mysterious discovery of three bodies in an apartment in Bad Vöslau (Lower Austria) last Saturday, the police are now assuming it was a double murder and suicide. The autopsy of the bodies provided clear evidence for this theory.

Firefighters made a shocking discovery last Saturday in Bad Vöslau: while fighting the flames in a burnt apartment, they noticed three male bodies with gunshot wounds. A handgun and a long gun were also seized in the apartment.

After extensive investigations, crime scene work and post-mortem examinations of the bodies, the police are assuming a double murder and suicide. The 77-year-old man "very probably" shot his two guests, set fire to his apartment and committed suicide, said Stefan Pfandler, head of the Lower Austrian State Office of Criminal Investigation, on Friday. Smoke fumes were discovered in the man's lungs, but not in the visitors.

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Murder weapon shotgun
The 77-year-old is said to have killed the men, born in 1956 and 1969 respectively, with a shotgun and a handgun. He then allegedly set fire to four places, causing flames in three of them, Pfandler said.

Based on the preliminary autopsy results, according to which smoke gases were only found in the body of the owner of the apartment, the other two men from his circle of acquaintances and friends were probably no longer alive when the fire broke out. A fourth person was "highly unlikely" to have been involved, the head of the State Office of Criminal Investigation stated.

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