Murder in Wels

Beaten woman dies after six years in a coma

The attack on the young mother happened in this flower store in Wels in May 2018.(Bild: Matthias Lauber/laumat.at)

A florist from Wels was in a vegetative state for six years after being beaten up. Her Serbian husband had attacked her in May 2018 at her workplace - a flower store next to the Wels hospital - after she had separated from him. The 38-year-old has now succumbed to the consequences of her severe injuries.

The case made headlines across the country at the time. On 7 May 2018, shortly before closing time, the Serbian man entered the flower store in Wels where his wife worked as a florist. The then 32-year-old mother of an eight-year-old daughter had previously separated from the 30-year-old after he was said to have repeatedly physically abused her. The husband apparently did not want to accept the separation.

Open skull fracture and brain injuries
He beat the woman in the store until she stopped moving. The florist suffered an open skull fracture and brain injuries. The man then calmly left the store and waited for the police. He was arrested and found guilty of attempted murder and making dangerous threats at Wels Regional Court in January 2019.

As, according to court expert Adelheid Kastner, he was not capable of guilt at the time of the crime due to chronic paranoid schizophrenia, he was committed to an institution for mentally disturbed offenders. He is still there today.

Never woke up from his coma
The injuries sustained in the attack were so severe that the victim never woke up from his coma. It has now become known that the woman, now 38 years old, died on Sunday in her care facility, presumably from the long-term effects of the attack. 

The victim will be bid farewell on Thursday in the funeral hall of the Wels city cemetery and then led to her final resting place. "You were love, you were loyalty, you were kindness, you were strength, you were everything to us," wrote the grieving relatives on the party about the deceased.