Taxi killer nabbed after 36 hours on the run
The man known as the Bodensee taxi murderer, who escaped a secure psychiatric hospital on Saturday, has been caught after about 36 hours on the run.
Andrej W., 29, was arrested by officers from the Heidelberg Criminal Police on Sunday night as he pedalled a bicycle in Zuzenhausen in the Rhine-Neckar district of Baden-Württemberg.
The officers recognised Andrej W. as they passed him on the road and, after a brief chase, arrested him, the Baden-Württemberg state police announced.
He had escaped Saturday morning from the Nordbaden Psychiatric Centre (PZN).
The man was “not seriously, though also not insignificantly wounded” on one arm, a police spokesman said, declining to give details about the cause of the injury.
He was treated quickly in a Heidelberg hospital and then returned to the PZN about 2 am.
Regarded as highly dangerous, Andrej W. in June last year murdered a 32-year-old woman taxi driver from Hagnau. He stabbed her repeatedly in the neck. Days earlier, he had seriously wounded, and then raped, another female taxi driver.
The killer, who is serving a life sentence, broke out of the grounds of the PZN in Wiesloch. It remains unclear how he got out of the secure compound via an exercise yard despite video surveillance and the fact that he was wearing ankle restraints.
To scale the first wall, he apparently used a toilet door that had been pulled off its hinges. But it is unclear how he removed the ankle restraints and got over a second wall that is topped with barbed wire.
There was no evidence that he had any help from another person, the police spokesman said.
The investigators were keeping an eye out for bicycle thefts in the region. It was known Andrej W. was a keen rider and had used a bike when he fled the scene of the Bodensee crime.
More than 60 officers were looking for him on Sunday, using dogs, a helicopter and thermal cameras.
DAPD/djw
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Andrej W., 29, was arrested by officers from the Heidelberg Criminal Police on Sunday night as he pedalled a bicycle in Zuzenhausen in the Rhine-Neckar district of Baden-Württemberg.
The officers recognised Andrej W. as they passed him on the road and, after a brief chase, arrested him, the Baden-Württemberg state police announced.
He had escaped Saturday morning from the Nordbaden Psychiatric Centre (PZN).
The man was “not seriously, though also not insignificantly wounded” on one arm, a police spokesman said, declining to give details about the cause of the injury.
He was treated quickly in a Heidelberg hospital and then returned to the PZN about 2 am.
Regarded as highly dangerous, Andrej W. in June last year murdered a 32-year-old woman taxi driver from Hagnau. He stabbed her repeatedly in the neck. Days earlier, he had seriously wounded, and then raped, another female taxi driver.
The killer, who is serving a life sentence, broke out of the grounds of the PZN in Wiesloch. It remains unclear how he got out of the secure compound via an exercise yard despite video surveillance and the fact that he was wearing ankle restraints.
To scale the first wall, he apparently used a toilet door that had been pulled off its hinges. But it is unclear how he removed the ankle restraints and got over a second wall that is topped with barbed wire.
There was no evidence that he had any help from another person, the police spokesman said.
The investigators were keeping an eye out for bicycle thefts in the region. It was known Andrej W. was a keen rider and had used a bike when he fled the scene of the Bodensee crime.
More than 60 officers were looking for him on Sunday, using dogs, a helicopter and thermal cameras.
DAPD/djw
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