Hindustan Times (Patiala)

Possible suicide pact in macabre crossbow bolt deaths

- Agence France-Presse letters@hindustant­imes.com n

MUNICH: Investigat­ors were on Tuesday pursuing leads that five mysterious deaths, including three by crossbow bolts, may have been a murder-suicide pact among Germans with a reported passion for medieval folklore and weaponry.

Police probing the initial triple death said they found the last wills of two of the victims in a hotel room, and no signs of a struggle or involvemen­t of other people.

Germany has been baffled by the macabre case since the trio of corpses was found on Saturday in a hotel in the Bavarian town of Passau, followed by Monday’s discovery of two dead women across the country in the town of Wittingen.

Bild daily reported that the victims had shared a fascinatio­n with the Middle Ages, including knights, jousting, weapons and alchemy.

According to an autopsy report, two of the victims in the Passau hotel room - a man named Torsten W, 53, and a woman called Kerstin E, 33 were found lying in the double bed, hand-in-hand.

They were killed with crossbow shots to their heads and hearts, the post-mortems found. The last wills of the couple from Rhineland-Palatinate state were also found in the room, police said.

The other woman, 30-yearold Farina C, lay on the floor, a crossbow arrow in her neck.

The local prosecutor’s office said it was treating the case as a “requested killing and suicide”, suggesting Farina shot the couple and then herself.

German law restricts firearms but archery equipment is freely available for sports and anyone over 18 can purchase a high-powered crossbow.

 ?? AFP ?? Undertaker­s carry a coffin out of a cordoned-off house in Wittingen, Germany, where two bodies were found.
AFP Undertaker­s carry a coffin out of a cordoned-off house in Wittingen, Germany, where two bodies were found.

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