Life for the murder of little Greta

The woman is said to have squeezed the chest of the two-year-old Greta during the afternoon nap so that she could no longer breathe. “The defendant was on duty and had – alone and undisturbed – access to the children,” said the presiding judge Lothar Beckers when giving reasons for the verdict. The girl died in the hospital two weeks later – one day after her third birthday.

“We just exist, we are no longer alive,” Greta’s mother said during the trial. Greta went to daycare for the first time in weeks because of the corona pandemic and was very happy. She was very healthy.

The head of the Viersen daycare center had reported that the defendant was very reluctant and did not fit into the team. She found her behavior strange and decided to quit her. At her previous jobs, too, her superiors described her as unemotional and unsuitable.

In other daycare centers, she is said to have squeezed children’s chests together, putting their lives at risk. The defense attorneys had nevertheless demanded an acquittal. There is no evidence of the crime, the cause of death has not been clearly clarified. The kindergarten teacher had protested her innocence to the end: she had never harmed a child.

The prosecutor had suspected that the woman was putting the children in danger in order to distinguish herself as a savior. She had raised the alarm herself whenever the children were short of breath or were not breathing at all.

The previous suspected cases in facilities in Krefeld, Kempen and Tönisvorst had only gradually come to light. The defendant was always alone with the children when the incidents occurred.