Man on trial after killing sex partner in Thun
Published: Friday, Dec 15th 2023, 03:50
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A 39-year-old man will stand trial for murder in Thun from Friday. The accused is alleged to have gruesomely killed a sexual partner in mid-January 2021 and then dumped the body in Lake Thun, weighted down with a construction site plinth.
The accused and the woman had occasional non-binding sexual contact in the past. Towards the end of 2020, the accused decided to become more active in terms of relationships and sexuality. To "warm up", so to speak, he sought contact with the former sexual partner, who was around five years younger.
After he had managed to make contact with the woman at her home in the Basel region, he directed her to a remote location in Bruderholz near Münchenstein. According to the indictment, there were already discussions there about what sexual acts the woman was prepared to perform. The accused apparently persistently tried to convince the woman of his wishes.
At an unknown time that night, the defendant struck the woman's head with an angular, edged object and also injured her ribs and back. He then tied the woman's hands and feet. She resisted.
Around 20 to 30 minutes later, the accused placed a cable tie around the woman's neck and pulled it tight so that the victim suffocated. The man tied the body to a building site plinth and drove with the body to a place on Lake Thun that he had previously found on the internet. There he threw the body into the lake.
On January 17, the initially unknown dead woman was found. Ten days later, the police arrested the suspect. He is currently serving an early sentence.
The public prosecutor's office has charged the man with murder, disturbing the peace of the dead, pornography and depictions of violence. Among other things, the man is said to have downloaded video recordings on the darknet showing the hanging of a young woman.
The trial before the regional court of first instance in Thun is scheduled to last several days. The verdict will be announced on December 22.
©Keystone/SDA
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