It is a case that seems so bizarre it could have come from a bad crime novel:
Since mid-January, 24-year-old Schahraben K. has been standing trial before the Ingolstadt Regional Court because, according to the public prosecutor’s office, she allegedly killed a “doppelgänger” of herself with an alleged accomplice, Sheqir K., in order to fake her own death and start a new life. The background was allegedly family disputes.
For a brief moment, this seemingly absurd plan even appeared to work.
When two acquaintances of the defendant found a female body in her car in August 2022, they initially assumed, due to the strong resemblance, that the body was Schahraben K.
The police and relatives also believed for a short time that the defendant had fallen victim to a homicide—her father even identified the body as his own daughter.
However, after inconsistencies emerged during the autopsy, the investigative authorities uncovered the defendant’s identity through a DNA comparison, whereupon she and her alleged accomplice were arrested.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the following sequence of events is said to have occurred in detail:
The defendant is said to have planned to fake her own death in order to escape the family conflict and make a fresh start with her partner at the time.
To this end, she is said to have deliberately searched on Instagram for women who resembled her and, in this context, contacted 23-year-old Khadidja O. from Eppingen. She allegedly offered the later victim a free treatment at a beauty salon if she would advertise for the salon.
Subsequently, she and her alleged accomplice are said to have picked up the 23-year-old at her home and killed her in a wooded area with more than 50 stab wounds.
Later, the two are said to have driven to Ingolstadt and parked the car with the body there in order to give the police the impression that the body was that of the defendant.
And that was not all: the defendant is also said to have commissioned a man to kill the brother of her ex-partner, but he did not carry out the assignment.
The co-defendant is also alleged to have attempted to incite a person in pre-trial detention to kill witnesses for the upcoming trial.
Initially, the two defendants, who are charged by the public prosecutor’s office with murder (Sections 211 of the German Criminal Code) and incitement to murder (Sections 211(2), 26 of the German Criminal Code), remained silent.
The trial, which began on 16 January 2024 and was delayed at the outset due to a defence motion for adjournment, could still drag on for a long time—after all, the public prosecutor’s office has named more than 190 witnesses.
After several days of hearings, the defendant broke her silence and stated that the co-defendant bore the guilt and responsibility—she had only been present during the offence. Sheqir K. had first attacked the girl in a wooded area and seriously injured her. She said she had wanted to stop him. Then he forced her to drive to the parking lot of a supermarket branch. There she left the car and he stabbed Khadidja O. to death.
The defendant’s statement contradicts the accounts given so far by the investigators and the public prosecutor’s office—at present, her remarks raise more questions than they answer.
It also remains to be seen whether Sheqir K. will comment on the allegations as well.