Horrific crime against a couple

Murder Suspect from Styria (17): “That’s just how I am…”

In this house in Sankt Peter am Ottersbach, Styria, the horrific crime took place on the night of April 22—an 84-year-old man died, and his 80-year-old wife was seriously injured.(Bild: Sepp Pail)

A butcher’s apprentice is under strong suspicion of breaking into the home of a married couple in Sankt Peter am Ottersbach, Styria, stabbing the man (84) to death and seriously injuring the woman (80). Now the young man says: “I’d been planning to kill someone for a long time.”

What on earth is going on inside this young man? How did it come to pass that at some point he was driven solely by a mad urge to commit the most heinous acts, to “just kill someone”—as he told the criminal investigation department. After his horrific crime, on the night of April 22. 

As reported, the 17-year-old had broken into the home of a retired couple in his hometown of Sankt Peter am Ottersbach, Styria, and stabbed them countless times with a knife he had brought with him; the man (84) died instantly, while the woman (80) survived with serious injuries.

The young perpetrator—he did not know his victims and had never had any disputes with them. “I chose them because they were older—and I therefore thought that I could probably expect little resistance from them,” the butcher’s apprentice also confessed.

And during interrogations, he spoke of “the plan” that had been “in him for quite some time.” “The plan” to turn his horrific fantasies into reality, “to finally murder people.” A “longing” that had grown so strong within him in the week leading up to his crime “that I could no longer suppress it—and finally had to give in to it.”

Police officers searching for evidence near the crime scene. The hammer used to smash a window in the victims’ home has not yet been found.(Bild: Sepp Pail)

Among his peers, he had been considered a loner
Without thinking about the consequences of his terrible actions—not even for himself. “I knew I would go to prison for my crime. I didn’t want to cover it up. That’s why I called the police shortly afterward and told the officer on the phone what I had done just before.”

He, this young man who had made hardly any friends from a young age, who preferred to spend his free time alone; in his room, or on solitary walks across fields and meadows. He, a young man who, until his heinous crime, had never stood out for acts of violence, neither in his private nor in his professional life.

“Introverted but hardworking”—that’s how people who have known him since childhood describe him. And no, none of them claim to have suspected anything of his dark side. Of his parallel world, into which he—presumably years ago—had drifted. Into a dark parallel world, “about which,” according to the Styrian, “no one was supposed to know.”

My client is likely to be seriously mentally ill. I hope he will soon undergo a forensic psychiatric evaluation.

Anwältin Astrid Wagner

Bild: Klemens Groh

He has been held at the Graz-Jakomini Correctional Facility since last Thursday—in the meantime, the renowned criminal defense attorney Astrid Wagner has taken over his representation. Her impression of her young client during a first visit behind bars? The 17-year-old remains “fully confessional. He’s not trying to sugarcoat anything.” He speaks in a calm voice, behaves almost excessively politely, and seems extremely shy.

The 17-year-old—who grew up in a sheltered, secure family environment—allegedly cannot explain the reason for his murderous impulses even to his lawyer: “I don’t even know myself why I became the way I am now...”

He is soon to undergo a thorough examination by several court-appointed psychiatrists.