Jealousy attack in Upper Austria

Murderer asked for directions before fatal shots

Katharina Hintringer met the attacker before the crime. She now had to clean up the traces of blood in the corridor outside the apartment.(Bild: Markus Schütz, Markus Wenzel, Krone KREATIV)

"Where does Kurt live?" - A few minutes after this question, the fatal shots rang out in Oberkappel (Upper Austria). Benjamin R. had shot his rival, right next to his new partner, the perpetrator's ex. She had opened the door for him herself. Horror reigned in Oberkappel and nearby Gottsdorf, where Benjamin R. lived.

Upon entering the house, a stranger asked 78-year-old Katharina Hintringer where her neighbor lived. "I told him there was a doorbell, but he said he didn't need one," recalls the Mühlviertel woman. She didn't realize what happened minutes later. She went to church across the street for early mass.

Neighbor heard fatal shots
Benjamin R. went straight through the open front door into the twelve-party house on Oberkappl's market square, rang the bell at Kurt H.'s door on the left, but Tanja, with whom Benjamin is divorced, opened it. She had only recently moved in with Kurt and the neighbors had hardly noticed her.

What followed was a brief conversation between the still-married couple. Then Kurt H. arrived and Benjamin R. pulled out his revolver. "We heard at least three firecrackers," recalls Josef Buchmaier (58), who was sitting at the breakfast table with his partner in the apartment below. He thought it was noise from the neighbor's building site, but she said: "It was gunshots." Upstairs, Kurt H. fell backwards to the floor, fatally shot in the head - there could have been up to five of them.

Pastor witnessed the escape
"We saw someone frantically running out of the house upstairs and driving away very quickly in a car," recalls organist Erwin Schlager (44), who was standing outside the church chatting with the priest and choirmaster after the early mass. They had no idea that they had seen a suspected murderer speeding away in a green Suzuki, believing that the man was in a hurry for an important reason, that perhaps something had happened somewhere and he had to get there. The Suzuki sped through the village in the direction of Neustift im Mühlkreis and the nearby Bavarian border, beyond which he lives in the first village - Gottsdorf. 

The victim was taken for an autopsy after the forensics were completed.(Bild: Markus Schütz, Krone KREATIV)

"He shot Kurt"
While the perpetrator fled, Katharina Hintringer came home from mass and discovered Kurt H.'s 43-year-old girlfriend crouching in front of his door. Distraught, crying, cell phone in hand. "He shot Kurt," sobbed the mother of two, cowering in the blood of her partner, who was lying behind her in the apartment. In the meantime, she had also dialed the emergency number.

Alarm via neighborhood info groups
While people in the village were sharing via neighborhood WhatsApp groups that a gunman was on the loose and that they should stay in their apartment, he was already at home in Gottsdorf. He drove past his house, where his daughter (14) and son (18) were, up to a small wood and took his own life there.

"Why did he spare his ex?"
We can only speculate as to why the jealous Bavarian spared his ex-partner. "Maybe he wanted her to suffer because she has now lost her new partner?" is speculated in the neighborhood. Others think: "He certainly didn't want the children to lose their father and mother."

In Oberkappel, shocked neighbors and friends of Kurt H. remain behind: "He was such a quiet, nice neighbor. He was always out and about on his bike or motorcycle, going archery or photography. He took such beautiful pictures," say neighbors who were happy that "Kurt" finally had a partner and said: "He didn't deserve that."

If you or someone close to you is in an exceptional psychological situation or is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please contact the telephone helpline on 142. You can find other crisis hotlines and emergency numbers HERE.