Life imprisonment!

Pensioner (72) beaten to death over ant trail

The defendant found himself in considerable difficulty explaining his actions.(Bild: Jürgen Fuchs)

An ant trail enraged an academic from Graz so much that he literally executed his neighbor, a 72-year-old pensioner, throwing her to the ground, beating and kicking her, and finally killing her with a spade. "I was in war mode," the 53-year-old tries to justify himself, adding, "She should have shown respect." The verdict: life imprisonment and committal, not yet final!

"You'll need a strong stomach. I've only seen scenes like this in horror movies," the prosecutor began her closing argument on Wednesday morning in the Graz courtroom. She was referring to that day in May last year when a "simple line of ants sealed Eva K.'s fate." The defendant—a 53-year-old man from Graz—discovered "hundreds of ants" in his mother's apartment, as he says. "I wanted to get to the bottom of the problem and followed her," says the industrial engineer in a lofty tone.

The ant trail led him to a flower pot on a terrace that was already a point of contention between him and the elderly lady who lived in the apartment directly adjacent to the terrace. For years, a bitter dispute had been smoldering over whether the terrace was part of the common area or not.

Punches, kicks, blows, stabs
When he picked up the flower pot, "the woman suddenly jumped out of the window and shouted abuse at me," says the defendant. "She invaded my personal space, attacked me and called me a 'troublemaker'." "The woman was only 1.5 meters tall," says presiding judge Michaela Lapanje. "Why didn't you just walk away?" "I lost my temper and punched her. She should have shown respect." 

This is one of the worst-mutilated corpses I have ever seen. Compared to you, the lady is a flyweight!

Beisitzender Richter Andreas Rom

This statement is irritating: "She should have apologized to you after you punched her? Stop blaming the woman for your actions," admonishes associate judge Hanspeter Draxler. "This is one of the worst mutilated corpses I have ever seen. The lady is a flyweight compared to you!" adds associate judge Andreas Rom.

After the crime, he bought an ant trap
"I lost my temper," the investor said, struggling to explain himself. Because what followed is "inexcusable," as the prosecutor said earlier. "Are you trying to kill me?" the distraught 72-year-old asked him after the punch. The sentence is said to have motivated him to decide: "Now I'm going to kill her!" He then kicked her in the face with his knee, grabbed her, threw her to the ground, and trampled on her face. Then he grabbed a spade and struck and stabbed her at least 18 times. 

I was in war mode, I lost control.

Der Angeklagte

"I was in war mode, I lost control," he sobs when asked "why." "You feel sorry for yourself above all else when you hear that," Associate Judge Draxler confronts him with his responsibility. "Yes, of course, that too..." Not a single bone in the petite woman's skull was left intact. The prosecutor speaks of "overkill."

After he had committed the crime, he went to his mother and called the emergency services. Then he packed his things to go and buy an ant trap at a drugstore...

According to expert opinion, he was of sound mind at the time of the crime, but suffers from a mental illness. Therefore, admission to a forensic therapeutic center was also requested. Later that afternoon, the verdict was handed down: life imprisonment and admission.