Perpetrator already convicted Skull from murder series found after 17 years
Body parts in the garden of the house got the investigation rolling - now the skull has also turned up there. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
The man was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing three people. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
According to the court, the main perpetrator strangled and dismembered three men in 2008, 2014 and 2019. The victims included the husband and a partner of his daughter. (archive image)
Image: dpa
Body parts in the garden of the house got the investigation rolling - now the skull has also turned up there. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
The man was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing three people. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
According to the court, the main perpetrator strangled and dismembered three men in 2008, 2014 and 2019. The victims included the husband and a partner of his daughter. (archive image)
Image: dpa
The new owners of the house of a convicted serial killer make a terrible discovery. The case is part of a brutal series of murders - the main perpetrator has already been convicted.
18.08.2025, 22:58
dpa
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- A skull belonging to a man murdered in 2008 has been discovered in Sontheim.
- The case is part of a series of murders for which an Italian man and his sons have already been convicted.
- No new investigations are planned.
A skull found in a garden in Sontheim has been identified - the discovery ties in with a long-ago and solved murder case. According to the Ellwangen public prosecutor's office, DNA tests have shown beyond doubt that the skull found in the garden is the head of a man who was killed on February 13, 2008. The rest of his body was discovered by chance in South Tyrol in 2008. The skull in the garden was found some time ago by the current owners in Sontheim under a concrete slab.
However, a convicted serial killer used to live where the body was found. The series of murders in Sontheim an der Brenz on the border between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, in which the serial killer was involved, kept investigators and the judiciary busy for years.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the crimes were committed in 2008, 2014 and 2019. The main perpetrator and his two sons have been in custody for years. The victims included the son-in-law, another partner of the daughter and the landlord of his garage, whom he probably killed to get his money.
Decapitated body was found in South Tyrol
There was no trace of the first victim, the son-in-law, for almost two decades. Until it became known in June that a body without a head found in South Tyrol in 2008 belonged to the young man. At the time, the public prosecutor described the fact that the head was found as a coincidence.
The then 55-year-old Italian citizen was sentenced to life imprisonment followed by preventive detention by the Ellwangen District Court in 2019 and 2020 for two counts of murder and manslaughter. His two sons, who were involved as accomplices, are also serving prison sentences for this.
According to the court, the strictly Catholic father of the family always proceeded in the same way as the main perpetrator: First he strangled his victims, then he dismembered them with chainsaws. He then disposed of the bodies.
No new charges
According to the verdict, the man killed the garage landlord in 2019 out of greed. The Turkish son-in-law in 2008 because he didn't think he fit in with the Italian family. And his daughter's new partner in 2014 because he allegedly physically abused her and her children. During questioning in 2019, the man confessed to the crimes.
According to the Ellwangen public prosecutor's office, there will be no further investigations into the case. The perpetrator had already been convicted of the offense by the Ellwangen district court on 11 February 2020.