Vienna, Dec 9, (dpa/GNA) – Nearly eight years after a young woman disappeared in Vienna, her ex-boyfriend has confessed to killing her and hiding her body on a military training ground.
The 32-year-old is now being treated as murder suspect, police and prosecutors said in Vienna on Tuesday.
The official said a voice message from the suspect and increasing pressure from investigators, led to a breakthrough in the case, which has gripped the Austrian public for years.
In January 2018, the then 21-year-old woman, identified as Jennifer S, was reported missing after she failed to show up for work. Suspicion soon fell on her then 24-year-old partner, who told police they had separated sometime before she disappeared.
Despite a thorough search of her flat, no evidence of a violent crime was found at the time, criminal investigators explained in a press conference.
Public appeals and search operations involving hundreds of officers, tracker dogs and an excavator were also unsuccessful.
The turning point came this year when a voice message from an online chat was forwarded to the police. “In the chat, he talked about the best way to dispose of a body, avoiding leaving any traces, and ensuring that no one would find it,” said investigator Wolfgang Lehner.
After further interrogations and a recent violent incident involving another woman, the man finally confessed last weekend, investigators said.
He stated that he had strangled Jennifer S in 2018 when she wanted to break up with him. He hid the body under leaves and branches on the Austrian Armed Forces’ training grounds near Vienna.
The remains of the deceased have since been recovered.
GNA