Murderer denies

Victim’s blood on his hands

In three weeks' time, Lambach murder suspect Jürgen H. (36) will stand before the judges in Wels and deny it: Traces of blood on his hands and his cell phone are likely to prove that he was the last guest to kill the innkeeper Josef Muhr (68), but new witnesses could exonerate the accused.

In any case, it will be exciting on January 18 at the Wels jury court and may end just as surprisingly as the circumstantial trial with the DNA evidence surrounding the Linz sauna-Gusti murder: the excavator driver from Stadl-Paura, who has a criminal record, is also fighting for such an acquittal. His defence lawyer Christian Rumplmayr confronts the prosecutor Christina Chalupsky and the chairman of the senate, Dr. Anton Weber, with several witnesses who are supposed to confirm H.'s innocence.

Will the chain of evidence hold? The last guest is said to have pumped the friendly landlord for money because he owed 200 euros to a sex club. This sum was missing from the till after Muhr was beaten to death with an armchair. Traces of the shoes that H. had disposed of in the Traun river were found in his blood. However, he only washed and wiped his hands and his cell phone, leaving traces of the victim's blood on them.

Photo: Upper Austrian Security Directorate