Trial in Leoben

“He was still gasping for breath, then he was lying next to me”

On January 30, a woman born in Vienna slit her son’s throat and stabbed him countless times in their shared apartment in Leoben, Styria.(Bild: Jürgen Fuchs)

The story could hardly be more horrific: On January 30, a woman born in Vienna slit her son’s throat in their shared apartment in Leoben, Styria, and stabbed him countless times. Before the jury court, she said she had heard voices and wanted to spare him from a miserable life. The verdict is handed down this afternoon: Life imprisonment, not yet final!

“This is not an easy topic to digest today; it will continue to weigh on your minds even after the trial is over. Unfortunately, I cannot spare you the details. You must know every gruesome detail, no matter how horrific; I must present the full truth to you,” said District Attorney Viktoria Steinecker as she prepared the jury for the horrific details of a gruesome crime committed by a 39-year-old woman originally from Vienna. It all happened on January 30 of this year in an apartment in a multi-unit building in Leoben.

Stabbed with a kitchen knife
Using a bread knife, the woman slit her 11-year-old son Samuel’s throat in the bathroom and then stabbed him countless times with another kitchen knife. “But he didn’t notice any of that—he was already dead,” the prosecutor continues in her opening statement.

She then attempted to take her own life, but failed. Although she briefly lost consciousness, she dialed 911 after regaining consciousness. However: “She didn’t tell them what she had done. So you can imagine the shock the paramedics experienced when they saw the dead child!”

Presiding Judge Roman Weiß(Bild: Jürgen Fuchs)

School Assistant with a Troubled Past
The woman, who is said to have experienced abuse herself and was addicted to drugs for years, has confessed. However: “She fled her family to build a new life with her son. She cared for him lovingly; he was the center of her life. She worked as a school assistant, so she was around children every day,” says her defense attorney.

According to her own account, she sought psychotherapy to process her childhood traumas, but she discontinued the therapy and instead educated herself through books. This led to conspiracy theories, and she became convinced that voices had foretold a bleak future for her son. She believed authorities were involved in satanic circles and that her child could not be saved. She wanted to protect him from that, the defense attorney explains.

She was fully aware that she was killing her child and that she must not do so. The mother slit her own son’s throat. 

Staatsanwältin Viktoria Steinecker

Bild: Jürgen Fuchs

Prosecutor Viktoria Steinecker, however, is convinced: “She wants to mislead you, the jury, so that she can escape punishment and be acquitted.” Both the court psychologist and the court psychiatrist confirm that she was suffering from a serious mental illness at the time of the crime. Steinecker: “The assessment was unequivocal! She was fully aware that she was killing her child and that she was not allowed to do so. The mother slit her own son’s throat and brutally murdered him.”

Defendant covers her eyes and ears
The medical examiner corroborates this—while she is speaking, the defendant covers her eyes and ears. She does not want to see her child’s body, which she has horribly mutilated, nor does she want to hear about the numerous, severe injuries she inflicted on him. The fact is: “Samuel bled to death. It was total blood loss; almost no blood could be extracted.” The primary cause was that she completely severed his throat; the stab wounds extended all the way to the spine. In addition, there were numerous stab wounds to the head, the back of the head, the neck, and other parts of the body. “He came out of the room, and then I stabbed him right away. He gasped for air, then he just lay there. I didn’t see any way out. I was feeling worse and worse, and I wanted to protect him from these people.”

This is a conspiracy theory. That is a major difference from a delusion.

Anita Raiger, Gerichtspsychologin

By “these people,” she means those with whom her family had formed a satanic pact, in the course of which she and her son had already been abused. However, there is no evidence of this. “This is a conspiracy theory,” the psychological expert clarifies. “That’s a big difference from a delusion.” She compared this to religious fanaticism; she was convinced that all of this had actually happened. In her daily life, however, she functioned completely normally, without drawing any attention to herself and with a structured routine.

“She was never mentally ill”
This is also confirmed by Frans van der Kallen, the psychiatric expert: “She was never mentally ill. The motive lies in her conspiracy theory. Psychosis doesn’t develop out of nowhere and doesn’t happen from one moment to the next. Her thinking was logical, purposeful, and responsible. That’s why she was of sound mind at the time of the crime.”

“She committed a terrible crime. And she did not suffer from any serious illness at the time. That is a bitter truth. There will be no answer to the question of why. She has not a single piece of evidence that she was psychotic. “I, however, can prove to you that she was of sound mind, thanks to the experts sitting here,” the prosecutor argues in closing. “I loved my son more than anything,” the defendant tells the jury as they retire to deliberate.

“For someone who kills a child—for someone who brings herself to kill her own child in such a brutal manner—there can be only one sentence: life imprisonment,” presiding Judge Roman Weiß announces on Wednesday afternoon. The jury has thus determined that the woman knew exactly what she was doing. Not yet final!