Solingen / Mönchengladbach (dpa) – After the violent death of five children in Solingen, the only surviving eldest son in the family – an eleven-year-old boy – needs rest, according to a victim advocate. “In such a situation people need time – and this time must be given to the boy and his grandmother,” said the victim protection officer of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Elisabeth Auchter-Mainz, on Saturday of the German press agency.
The 27-year-old mother of the Solingen family is said to have first anesthetized her one to eight year old children and then suffocated, as the investigators suspect. An arrest warrant was issued against her. Only the eleven-year-old who was in school at the time of the crime survived. He is now with his grandmother in Mönchengladbach.
She spoke to the responsible authorities and got the impression that the eleven-year-old and grandmother in Mönchengladbach would be well looked after, even with the support of emergency chaplains, said the victim protection officer. Many questions are open for the future – such as where and with whom the boy should live and go to school in the future. “But I’m too early to say now, it has to go one way or the other.”
Auchter-Mainz reported that she had made contact with the Chamber of Psychotherapists and the Rhineland Regional Association, which operates trauma clinics in Mönchengladbach and Krefeld. They found specific contact persons at the regional association that the boy and his grandmother could turn to.
Auchter-Mainz has been the state’s first victim protection officer since the end of 2017 and supports victims of criminal and violent offenses with her team.
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