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40 years after the murder of Melanie and Karola Weimar, Dr. Gerhard Strate, lawyer for the convicted mother, reopened the case. Two painted pictures and a ruling from the USA could shake up the old ruling.
Fulda/Hamburg – The The so-called “Weimar” murder case was one of the longest and most spectacular circumstantial proceedings in German legal history. It's about the death of the two girls Melanie (7 years old) and Karola Weimar (5) in August 1986 in Philippsthal (Hersfeld-Rotenburg district). Their mother Monika, whose surname was Weimar at the time, reported the children missing. A few days later, both children were found dead in a nearby parking lot.
New clues: Lawyer wants to reopen the Weimar murder case
According to the report, they were suffocated or strangled. The investigation caused a great stir. When the mother became entangled in contradictions, she was arrested as the main suspect. She, in turn, accused her now deceased husband Reinhard of killing their daughters and always protested her innocence.
In January 1988, Monika Weimar was sentenced to life imprisonment before the Fulda regional court. When the verdict was announced, the audience in the hall cheered. In 1995, however, the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court ordered the proceedings to be reopened. This ended in April 1997 after a spectacular trial at the Giessen Regional Court with an acquittal, which the Federal Court of Justice overturned due to inadequate assessment of witness statements and some circumstantial evidence.
Shortly before Christmas 1999, the Frankfurt regional court again handed down a life sentence. In August 2006, Monika Böttcher, divorcee from Weimar, was released from prison after 15 years in prison. This release was possible because the Frankfurt judges in 1999 did not find any “particular seriousness of guilt”.
Monika Weimar's brother-in-law comes into focus as a possible suspect
Now the Hamburg criminal defense lawyer Gerhard Strate wants to have the proceedings reopened. He submitted a corresponding application to the Darmstadt regional court on March 17th. The aim of the reopening application is to overturn the 1999 verdict and acquit his client, explains Strate in a letter published on his homepage. The request corresponds to Monika Böttcher's “express wish”.
As the lawyer explains, the application is based, among other things, on drawings that the two killed girls Karola and Melanie are said to have made shortly before their deaths and which, according to his interpretation point out the actual perpetrator: Monika Weimar's brother-in-lawwho was living in the same house as a US soldier at the time. According to documents attached to the application, a US court sentenced him to 16 years in prison in 1999 in a separate case for child abuse.
This judgment and the events on which it is based are “a new fact” in the criminal law sense, according to the letter to the Darmstadt regional court. They viewed the brother-in-law, who was described as a “pedophile,” as “another potential perpetrator.” Together with the children's drawings, this should form the basis for a renewed examination of the question of guilt.
Strate describes the mood of the pictures of seven-year-old Karola and her sister as threatening. The focus is on “the two dark figures who, with open mouths and wide eyes, look fearfully towards a creature and shrink away from it”. This creature has “phallus-like limbs” that “should not be able to be drawn in such a concrete way” by a seven-year-old. According to the lawyer's interpretation, the two dark, fearful figures could be read as the girls' self-portrayal. From the defense's perspective, the drawings are intended to be an indication of sexual abuse and thus of the brother-in-law as a possible perpetrator.
Defense lawyer describes the possible course of the Weimar murder
Photos of the drawings emerged three years ago in connection with research into the documentary “The Secret of the Weimar Murders,” reports Strate in an interview with the Fulda newspaper. They had previously been made available to the Bavarian State Archives by “Stern”.
Strate describes a possible crime sequence in an interview with the Fulda newspaper as follows: The girls' uncle and father were in the house on the night of the crime, “and may have had something to drink together. There is some evidence to suggest that the brother-in-law had certain intoxicants and drugged Reinhard Weimar. The events of the crime may have developed. During his later crimes in the USA, it emerged that he placed a soft covering on his victims' heads. It may have been the same here. It may be that he abused Melanie and accidentally suffocated her in the process.”
Sister Karola may have witnessed what happened, which is why she was strangled by her uncle, Strate suspects. However, the lawyer assumes that the crime occurred at night; the court previously assumed that the killing occurred during the day, as the girls were said to have been seen by witnesses. However, Strate doubts the reliability of these witnesses and, according to his own statement, had a corresponding report prepared.
The Hamburg criminal defense attorney assumes that it will take around six months for the criminal chamber in Darmstadt to examine the application for reopening and come to a decision.
