An 11-year-old boy is suspected of being involved in the death of a 10-year-old girl at a children’s home in Germany, police have claimed.
The girl was found dead in her room at a child and youth welfare facility in Wunsiedel, Bavaria, on Tuesday.
Evidence gathered at the scene “suggests the involvement of an 11-year-old boy” who is staying at the same facility, local police and prosecutors said in a joint statement.
“Since the 11-year-old boy has not yet reached the age of criminal responsibility, he has been placed in a secure facility as a precaution.”
It’s still unclear how the girl died, although a police spokesman told German media that she suffered a “violent” death.
The case comes with Germany still reeling from the killing of 12-year-old Luise Frisch, who was found dead in the western town of Freudenberg last month after suffering multiple stab wounds.
Two schoolgirls, aged 12 and 13, have confessed to the murder.
Ulrike Scharf (3rd from right, CSU), Minister of State for Family, Labor and Social Affairs, leaves the children’s and youth center together with Martin Schöffel (M, CSU), MdL, to lay flowers in front of the facility
Ulrike Scharf, Minister of State for Family, Labor and Social Affairs, commemorates a girl who was killed in a Bavarian daycare center
A police patrol car blocks the road to the children and youth center
Ulrike Scharf, Minister of State for Family, Labor and Social Affairs, makes remarks outside the child and youth welfare center where a 10-year-old girl was found dead
Police and prosecutors declined to give further details about the Wunsiedel case, but said the boy had not yet been questioned.
They added that they would coordinate closely with local youth authorities.
Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann praised the investigators for quickly identifying a suspect.
“Thanks to the meticulous and committed investigations, a person involved in the crime could be identified in a comparatively short time.
“It is important now to clarify the exact circumstances of this tragedy,” he said.
The child and youth welfare center in the small town of Wunsiedel, home to around 90 children and young people, was “deeply shocked” by the girl’s death.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the parents, family, our children and our colleagues,” the statement read.
On its website, the institute describes itself as a supporter of “young people and their families who need help with their upbringing”.
The investigation into the girl’s death would continue unhindered throughout the Easter weekend, a police spokeswoman said on Friday.
Less than a month ago, the town of Freudenberg, near Cologne, was rocked when Luise Frisch, 12, was found dead after disappearing after a game date.
Her killers, named Luisa Halberstadt, 13, and Anna-Marie Hoffman, 12, stabbed their victim 32 times with a nail file before pushing her down a steep embankment in a nearby forest.
A new picture of Luise has also been released with her date of birth – August 29, 2010 – and date of death – March 12, 2023
Placed flowers and candles near where Luise’s body was found
The 13-year-old suspect also posted a video on TikTok showing herself dancing just hours after Luise’s body was found
The classmates also put a plastic bag over Luise’s head before one of them said to the other coldly: “Hit her with a stone, otherwise she would be lying next to her”.
The couple have confessed to the crime but will avoid punishment as they are too young to be criminally responsible in Germany.
Police fear Luise may have been alive before she was thrown off the embankment and died from her injuries and the sub-zero temperatures that hit the area in early March.
An investigative source told Web: “The act itself was horrifying. Veteran officers who have been involved in many murder cases are shocked by the murder.
“Not only by the age of the victim, but also by the age of the suspects – the murder weapon has yet to be found and although we initially thought it might be a knife, we now suspect it might be a nail file .”
Officials urged people not to share the suspects’ identities on social media following the attacks, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
Images of the girls with the word “murderer” circulated around different sites as outrage grew over the fact that both will evade justice because they are under the age of 14, which is the criminal age limit in Germany.
A petition calling for a change in the law garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures.
Death threats were also made against the girls online, and they and their families were moved from their homes in the sleepy village of Freudenberg.
Police have been forced to station patrol cars outside suspects’ homes to deter angry citizens from damaging property, and the families are unlikely to ever be able to return.