Remains Identified Following Decades-Long Mystery
Unraveling a Chilling Mystery: The Unveiled Truth Behind a Decades-Old Murder
For nearly two decades, the identity of a third victim from a brutal murder series ensnaring the small town of Sontheim an der Brenz remained shrouded in mystery. Now, the veil has been lifted: A headless body discovered in South Tyrol in 2008 has been identified as a young man – the son-in-law of the principal culprit. This confirmation was confirmed by the Ellwangen Public Prosecutor's Office upon request. Both Italian and German media had previously reported on this finding.
The gruesome murder spree in Sontheim an der Brenz, a picturesque town nestled on the border of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, left investigators and the justice system baffled for years. The series of crimes unfolded in 2008, 2014, and 2019, according to the public prosecutor's office. The victims included the son-in-law, another partner of the main perpetrator's daughter, and a garage owner.
A Bloodthirsty Mastermind Behind Bars
In 2019 and 2020, a 55-year-old Italian citizen was sentenced to life imprisonment with subsequent preventive detention by the Ellwangen Regional Court for two counts of murder and manslaughter. His two sons, also implicated as accomplices, were also serving prison sentences. The investigation was prompted by body parts found in the family's garden.
As per court records, the devout Catholic family patriarch always approached his heinous acts in the same manner as the primary perpetrator: First, he would choke his victims, dismember them with chain saws, and dispose of the remains in Italy.
The garage owner met his grisly end in 2019, the verdict declared, driven by greed. The Turkish son-in-law was killed in 2008 because he did not fit the Italian family's ideal in the perpetrator's eyes. And the new partner of his daughter was killed in 2014, allegedly due to claims of physical abuse against her and her children.
DNA Match Yields Clarity
During interrogations in 2018 and 2019, the man confessed to the crimes. However, he later denied the murder of his son-in-law in court. As the body could not be found at the time, this crime was classified as manslaughter. According to the Ellwangen Public Prosecutor's Office, there will be no new indictment. The man cannot be tried twice for the murder of his son-in-law, a spokesman explained.
The grisly remains of the young man were discovered by two workers in a box near Klausen on the Brenner motorway in South Tyrol – and remained an unsolved mystery until the end. Media reports suggest that it was only a DNA match that brought definitive proof. The head of the unfortunate victim has yet to be found.
The gruesome mystery of the headless young man, discovered in South Tyrol in 2008, has finally been resolved through DNA matching, confirming him as the son-in-law of the principal suspect in the Sontheim an der Brenz war-and-conflicts case. This general-news development comes after a series of crimes, including murder and manslaughter, linked to the family's politics of violence and crime-and-justice.
