Overview
- The retrial at the Landgericht Bamberg opened on Monday, October 12, and is scheduled to run through January 15, 2027 with multiple hearing dates.
- The Bundesgerichtshof overturned last year's manslaughter conviction because the first chamber did not sufficiently rule out alternative explanations or other potential perpetrators.
- Prosecutors say the 33-year-old Bulgarian woman, identified as Katina K., was killed on August 1, 2024 on the defendant's Eggolsheim property and her body was moved, but no body has been found to date.
- The 75-year-old defendant largely remained silent again at the retrial's opening, which forces the court to rely mainly on investigative findings and circumstantial evidence.
- The case will test the legal standard for convictions without a recovered body by requiring the new chamber to exclude reasonable alternative scenarios beyond doubt, and the outcome will shape how German courts handle similar circumstantial cases while the victim's family continues to seek closure.