Woman 'killed partner's dad and cut up body'
A woman strangled her partner's father in a judo hold, then chopped up his body and buried the pieces in a shallow grave, a court heard on Friday. Reports suggest the fight was sparked by an argument over the washing up.
The 46-year-old woman named only as Manuela M., has already admitted most of the allegations the Hamburg District Court heard against her, police said, but her lawyer told the judge on Friday that she would not speak until the next hearing date in August.
Local media have reported that Manuela M. was in the house owned by the complicated family of her boyfriend Ralf Kniep. He lived with his father Karl Heinz, 85, on the ground floor while his mother Gerda, 77, lived upstairs as she was separated from the father.
Ralf Kniep, 41, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper that he was away in rehab on September 9th, 2012, when an argument between Manuela M. and his father obviously ran out of control.
She was clearing out the dishwasher when the row broke out, the paper said. At some point Manuela lost her temper and attacked Karl Heinz, holding him in a strangle grip until he died, the paper said.
She is then accused of cutting up his body with a DIY saw, before taking the pieces to a nature reserve less than a mile, and burying them.
It was a full week later that the dead man's family registered him as missing - and three weeks after that, that a walker came across one of his arms. Before long the rest of his body was found by police.
Detectives took three months to question friends and relatives before they came to arrest Manuela M., the Hamburger Morgenpost said.
Yet the role of the other family members is also likely to come under scrutiny, as both the son Ralf Kniep and his mother Gerda failed to report the old man missing- a son-in-law did that a week later.
The case continues, and will start again at the start of August.
The Local/DPA/hc
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The 46-year-old woman named only as Manuela M., has already admitted most of the allegations the Hamburg District Court heard against her, police said, but her lawyer told the judge on Friday that she would not speak until the next hearing date in August.
Local media have reported that Manuela M. was in the house owned by the complicated family of her boyfriend Ralf Kniep. He lived with his father Karl Heinz, 85, on the ground floor while his mother Gerda, 77, lived upstairs as she was separated from the father.
Ralf Kniep, 41, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper that he was away in rehab on September 9th, 2012, when an argument between Manuela M. and his father obviously ran out of control.
She was clearing out the dishwasher when the row broke out, the paper said. At some point Manuela lost her temper and attacked Karl Heinz, holding him in a strangle grip until he died, the paper said.
She is then accused of cutting up his body with a DIY saw, before taking the pieces to a nature reserve less than a mile, and burying them.
It was a full week later that the dead man's family registered him as missing - and three weeks after that, that a walker came across one of his arms. Before long the rest of his body was found by police.
Detectives took three months to question friends and relatives before they came to arrest Manuela M., the Hamburger Morgenpost said.
Yet the role of the other family members is also likely to come under scrutiny, as both the son Ralf Kniep and his mother Gerda failed to report the old man missing- a son-in-law did that a week later.
The case continues, and will start again at the start of August.
The Local/DPA/hc
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