A dead body found on Tuesday in Germany’s Westerwald region is that of the man thought to have in April, state prosecutors said on Thursday.
The disappearance of the suspect following the murders triggered a large-scale manhunt.
What do we know about the find?
The body of the suspect was found by a passerby around a kilometer (under a mile) from Weitefeld, police said.
A cause of the suspect’s death has not yet been identified, but the body was said by police to have been in a relatively advanced state of decomposition, indicating that it had lain for a long period of time.
State prosecutors said a weapon was found not far from the corpse that could be the murder weapon. At the time, police said both a firearm and a stabbing weapon may have been used in the killings.
As late as July, state prosecutors had said it was not clear whether the suspect was still alive and, if so, where he was.
What was the crime?
In April of this year, the bodies of 47-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman, who were husband and wife, and their 16-year-old son were found in their home in Weitefeld, a small town located some 30 kilometers (almost 19 miles) from the city of Siegen.
The couple had suffered fatal injuries inflicted by a firearm and a sharp implement, while their son had been shot.
The police were alerted by a call from the woman, who, however, died of her injuries shortly afterward.
The suspected murderer was seen leaving the scene as soon as police arrived.
The town mayor, Karl-Heinz Kessler, said at the time that both the victims and the alleged perpetrator were long-time residents of Weitefeld. In fact, according to state prosecutors, the suspect lived in another town just a short distance away.
No motive for the murders has yet been identified.
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