Gruesome Scenes

Here’s How the Murder at the Correctional Facility Unfolded

Once again, an inmate has been killed in a prison in Austria.(Bild: FOTOKERSCHI / WERNER KERSCHBAUMMAYR)

In the case of the 40-year-old sex offender who was killed on Monday afternoon at the forensic-therapeutic center in Garsten (Upper Austria) by a 63-year-old convicted murderer, the autopsy results are now available. More and more details are also emerging about the sequence of events.

It was shortly after 3 p.m. when 63-year-old Syrian Mohamed H. and the 40-year-old Vienna native apparently attempted to walk from a cell through a hallway in the correctional facility to another room. A video recording shows the two apparently getting into an argument, after which the older man suddenly pulls out a knife and stabs the younger man multiple times.

Video without sound
No sound can be heard on the footage available to the investigating authorities. In reality, however, the violent incident likely was not silent. This is evident from the fact that the 40-year-old is seen falling to the ground, a pool of blood spreading, and prison guards immediately rushing around the corner.

While one of the officers tends to the victim and begins CPR, the second takes the assailant into custody. For the 40-year-old, however, any help comes too late.

“We are investigating this as a case of intentional homicide,” explains Andreas Pechatschek, spokesperson for the Steyr District Attorney’s Office. The forensic autopsy of the deceased revealed that he had been stabbed multiple times in the chest area. “One of the stab wounds struck the lung area, causing the victim to bleed to death internally,” said Pechatschek.

Stabbed with a butter knife
During an initial interrogation, Mohamed H. admitted to the stabbings. The weapon is believed to have been a butter knife, which was seized. The motive remains unclear. There is no official record of a prior history related to this case. The 40-year-old may simply have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The suspect had previously killed an elderly couple in Linz-Urfahr on June 30, 2017. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison and placement in a forensic-therapeutic center. At the time, court-appointed expert Adelheid Kastner had diagnosed him with a quarrelsome personality disorder.