A Stuttgart hotelier is said to have stolen 100,000 euros from a guest and then murdered him after the victim wanted to confront him about the theft. Now the man has to answer for murder and embezzlement in court.
Stuttgart judges now have to deal with a particularly unusual crime: a hotel manager is accused of having stolen from a wealthy guest last spring and - when he found out - murdered him. The man is charged with murder and embezzlement before the district court.
According to the indictment, the operator of the hotel is said to have stolen 100,000 euros from the guest's possessions from the safe. The 59-year-old noticed this and confronted the hotelier. According to the public prosecutor's office, this cost him his life on Easter Sunday: The hotel manager is said to have hit his victim eight times in the storage room of an underground car park with a five-kilo kettlebell and then choked the man.
The German is said to have buried the body in a forest in Esslingen near Stuttgart. Initially, two possible accomplices of the alleged murderer were also suspected, but the investigations against the two were stopped again. The hotelier acted alone and personally.
According to earlier information, the victim had lived a very secluded life and had permanently rented the hotel of his alleged killer. The police had found the murderer through research in the vicinity of the dead man, who was arrested three and a half weeks after the body was found. A total of 13 days of negotiations are scheduled. A verdict is not expected before the end of January.
