The mother allegedly anaesthetized and suffocated the children – two boys aged 8 and 6 and three girls aged 3, 2 and 1, the prosecutors say. The children became in the apartment house in Solingen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, found in their bed, with no traces of physical violence. It is not yet clear exactly how they died. According to the researchers, the children were killed between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon.
The oldest child, an 11-year-old boy, was unharmed. He was in school when the drama took place and was put on the train by his mother after school to his grandmother in Mönchengladbach. The mother then tried to take her own life by jumping in front of a train in Düsseldorf. She was injured, but was not in danger of life. She is in hospital and has not yet been questioned by the police.
Whatsapp report
Shortly before her suicide attempt, the woman had sent her mother a WhatsApp message writing what she had done. The children’s grandmother then alerted the police.
Prosecutors suspect that the woman committed her crime in a state of “emotional overload,” and that is where the motive must be sought. She had been separated from the man with whom she had her four youngest children for a year. The mother messaged her mother saying that she ‘couldn’t go on like this’, referring to her marital troubles. “We can only speculate that the motive was the difficult marriage,” says Marcel Maierhofer of the Wuppertal police.
The family was known to the youth care in Solingen. According to the municipality, there had never been any danger to the children. The six children of the family come from three fathers. They are not suspects in the case.
Germany shocked
The family drama has shocked Germany. The mayor of Solingen, Tim Kurzbach, spoke on Thursday of ‘a day of deep sorrow’.
The campaign for the upcoming regional elections has been halted for the time being. A protest against the extreme right, scheduled today in the central square in Solingen, has been canceled. A memorial for the family drama is now being held instead.
Questions about suicide? Call 0900-0113 or go to the website 113.nl to chat (anonymously).
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