Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Murder case “Sandkuhle” near Krefeld
Murderer has to be imprisoned 25 years after the crime
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At the end of 1996, a hunter discovered a cruelly battered body near Krefeld. The “Sandkuhle” murder case has remained unsolved for more than two decades. A TV report brings the turning point. Almost a quarter of a century after the crime, a murder sentence was passed.
Almost a quarter of a century after a murder case involving a long unidentified victim, the Aachen district court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment. The verdict against Achim K. was issued for murder in unity with predatory extortion. The court thus followed the demands of the public prosecutor and the victim’s daughter, who appeared as a joint plaintiff in the trial.
The prosecution had accused the now 51-year-old German of having killed a motorhome dealer near Aachen at the end of 1996. He is said to have hit the businessman first with a hammer and then strangled with a rope. The victim was a 43-year-old family man from Würselen. The defendant is said to have worked in the dealer’s workshop and committed the act out of greed for 5000 marks. His alleged accomplice had already died in 1997. His brother was one of the main witnesses in the trial. He testified that his brother and the defendant reported to him in detail at the time.
After the murder, the two men are said to have taken the body to a disused gravel pit about a hundred kilometers away near Rheurdt-Schaephuysen near Krefeld and Duisburg. A hunter discovered the unclothed body there on December 8, 1996. The identity of the brutally beaten victim had not been known for more than 20 years, and the act of violence had become a so-called “cold case”. Therefore the place where the corpses were found “Sandkuhle” gave the unsolved case its name.
Murder does not expire. In the process, the Aachen regional court heard more than 45 witnesses to come to terms with what had happened a long time ago. Among them was the main witness who knew about the act of violence from hearsay and who reported in 2019 after a report by the wanted program “Aktenzeichen XY … unsolved”. A little later, the alleged perpetrator was arrested. The accused remained silent during the trial.
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