Another case of violence among children? A ten-year-old girl was found dead in a child welfare facility in Wunsiedel. The investigators are assuming a homicide and the involvement of an eleven-year-old boy.
After a ten-year-old girl was found dead in a child and youth welfare facility in Wunsiedel in Upper Franconia on Tuesday (April 4th), the police now suspect an eleven-year-old to have been involved in the crime. He lived in the same children’s home as the dead woman. “There the boy not criminally responsible he was housed in a secure facility as a preventive measure,” said the police and public prosecutor’s office on Friday (April 7).
A hearing of the eleven-year-old was still pending according to the police on Friday. Further measures would be taken in close coordination with the youth authorities. It is currently unclear whether the boy has been questioned and whether he says or has said anything regarding the crime.
Interior Minister Herrmann thanks the special commission
“Soko Park and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office have done an excellent job of evaluating the traces,” praised Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann. “Thanks to the meticulous and highly committed investigations, a person involved in the crime might be identified in a comparatively short time.”
In this case, the Minister of the Interior spoke of very difficult and complex investigations, in particular because a large number of children and young people have to be questioned. “It takes a lot of tact.” According to Herrmann, the investigators’ work is far from over. “Now it’s time to clarify the exact background of this horrific act.”
Homicide, but not a sex offense
The investigators assume a homicide, as the public prosecutor Hof confirmed, but not a sexual offence.
The first forensic examinations indicated that an external influence might have been the cause of the girl’s death. An accident was also the initial cause of death.
Employees of the facility discovered the child on Tuesday (April 4) lifeless in a room at the St. Josef child and youth welfare center, the police headquarters in Upper Franconia and the public prosecutor’s office in Hof said on Wednesday (April 5). An emergency medical team was only able to determine the girl’s death, it said. An autopsy was ordered to determine the exact cause of death, police said. The first signs of third-party negligence in the death of the child would have emerged.
Image rights: dpa
Investigations focus on facility
Specialists secured extensive traces in the facility. The criminal police have also formed a special commission.
The officials are concentrating their investigations solely on the facility, said a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Hof. That means on the employees and the children and young people accommodated there.
It is unclear whether there may or may be other people involved in the crime. The day following the girl was found, security circles said two eleven-year-olds and a 16-year-old were the focus of the investigation. According to the current status, the police did not make it public how many people were involved in the crime.
The authorities only announced the case on Wednesday in order to be able to secure extensive evidence and interview witnesses on Tuesday.
Image rights: dpa
After a suspected homicide: children and young people are cared for by professionals
The spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Hof was unable to say how many children and young people are currently being housed in the St. Josef children’s and youth welfare center in Wunsiedel. Due to the holiday season – currently the Easter holidays in Bavaria – the facility is not fully occupied.
Normally, around 90 children, adolescents and young adults from all over Germany are cared for in the Catholic home on a full and part-time basis. Most of them come from difficult family backgrounds. Their living quarters are spread over a spacious area.
The children and young people are now looked following by appropriately trained staff.
For me there is now no question that the children and young people and especially the employees in the St. Josef facility in Wunsiedel are looked following, accompanied and supported in the best possible way.
Ulrike Scharf | Family and Social Affairs Minister, Bavaria
This article was first published on April 6th, 2023.
BRISANT/dpa/AFP/spiegel.de/bayern.de
On the subject
This topic in the program:The First | BRISANT | April 07, 2023 | 5:15 p.m
