German Couple Jailed for Life After Killing Ukrainian Women to Steal Infant

A German couple who admitted to killing a Ukrainian refugee and her mother last year to abduct the woman’s infant daughter were sentenced to life in prison on February 10, according to DPA International.

On the first day of their trial last month, the defendants confessed to murdering a 27-year-old Ukrainian woman and her 51-year-old mother with the intent of kidnapping the younger woman’s five-week-old baby.

The couple, a 45-year-old woman and her 43-year-old husband from Sandhausen, near Heidelberg, told the court they had suffered multiple miscarriages and failed infertility treatments. They planned to abduct the newborn and raise her as their own.

Prosecutors stated that the couple has four children in total, including a son they share. The husband, in a statement read by his lawyers, expressed remorse, saying, “I regret everything I’ve done,” while his wife described her actions as “a big mistake.”

Both were charged with murder and child abduction.

According to investigators, the couple deliberately targeted Ukrainian refugees, using a Telegram group where they posed as volunteers offering translation assistance. The 27-year-old Ukrainian woman, her mother, and her child had been living in a refugee shelter in Wiesloch, a town in southwestern Germany, when they came into contact with the couple.

On March 6, 2024, the couple allegedly drugged the two Ukrainian women at a restaurant. The man then killed them separately using a blunt object. The grandmother’s body was disposed of in a lake, while the mother’s body was set on fire before they left with the child.

A passerby discovered the burned remains of the 27-year-old woman on the banks of the Rhine the following day. Police arrested the couple on March 13 and recovered the child, who was subsequently returned to Ukraine and placed in the care of an aunt.

Previously on January 7, German media reported the suspects as a Russian woman and a German man.