Bonn/Lohmar (dpa/lnw) - Around 35 years after the violent death of the innkeeper's daughter Claudia Otto in Lohmar, the Bonn public prosecutor's office has brought charges against an already convicted double murderer. The 66-year-old is said to have strangled the young woman in 1987. A spokeswoman for the Bonn district court said on Thursday that he was accused of murder out of greed in combination with robbery resulting in death. The man was arrested in Detmold in April on strong grounds of suspicion and has been in custody since then.
The suspect has only been at large since 2020 - after spending 32 years in prison. In 1988 he strangled a small child and his grandmother in the Sauerland and was finally sentenced to life imprisonment and preventive detention.
Because of the murder of Claudia Otto, the man, who had regularly visited her parents' excursion restaurant, came under suspicion shortly after the crime. However, it was not until the end of 2017 that a genetic fingerprint was discovered in the cold case using modern DNA analysis methods, which led to an arrest warrant. However, since a second DNA trace of an unknown person was found at the same time, the crime could not be proven with the necessary certainty. After a complaint from the suspect, the arrest warrant was lifted.
After another routine check, the unknown trailblazer was identified - the second attachment came from an employee of the State Criminal Police Office. This left only one trace relevant to the crime, which is attributed to the 66-year-old. Now the Bonn district court has to decide whether to open the main proceedings.
