The mysterious murder

A murder case that was considered an unsolvable cold case for almost 20 years was the murder of 49-year-old businesswoman and widow Ursula M. from Ahrensburg, located 30 kilometers from the Elbe metropolis of Hamburg. On the night of July 18-19, 1993, Klaus G., Ursula M.’s partner, a computer specialist from Hamburg, returned from his diving weekend in Rügen to their semi-detached house on Vierbergen Street in Ahrensburg at around 12:15 a.m. But there was no sign of Ursula M., so Klaus G. asked the neighbors and acquaintances, who had no idea where Ursula was. Klaus G. then searched the entire house and made a gruesome discovery in the bedroom closet. His dead partner was lying there. Klaus G. immediately alerted the police. Since then, 25 officers from the Lübeck Criminal Investigation Department’s homicide division have been investigating the mysterious murder case. As there were no signs of a break-in and no valuables had been stolen, the investigators assumed that Ursula’s murderer must have come from her immediate circle. Ursula M.‘s ex-boyfriend quickly came under the investigators’ scrutiny. Ursula M. was an attractive woman who was the managing director of a surface technology company in Barsbüttel with eight employees. Ursula M. was considered a fun-loving person whose husband had died 16 years ago. Since then, she had been living with her now 19-year-old son in a semi-detached house in Ahrensburg, who was away on the weekend of the crime. Ursula M. wanted to marry her new partner Klaus G. later this year. But her ex-boyfriend, who had previously worked as an accountant in her company and whom she had recently fired, made her life hell with harassing phone calls and threats. Ursula M. feared for her life. Was he the murderer of Ursula M., who had visited her at her company just one day before the crime? Investigators were able to answer this question with a clear “no,” as her ex-boyfriend had a solid alibi at the time of the crime. According to the autopsy, Ursula M. had already been strangled between 12 noon and midnight on July 17. Investigators assumed that Ursula had let her killer into the house, where they went to the bedroom, either voluntarily or under duress. There, a violent altercation ensued, ending with Ursula M. being thrown onto the bed and a pillow being pressed over her face to suffocate her. When this failed, she was strangled with a piece of clothing. The murderer then hid Ursula’s body in the closet. The murder investigation was in full swing. Witnesses reported that on the day of the crime, two men had driven up to the semi-detached house in a dark blue station wagon. Ursula M. knew one of the men and let him into the house, but he left again after 15 minutes. However, this lead also came to nothing. After three years, the case was closed without Ursula’s murderer being caught. Even a reward of €1,500 for information leading to the arrest of Ursula M.’s murderer, which Klaus G. later increased to almost €10,000, did not lead to any results. Thanks to technological advances, a routine DNA comparison was carried out in 2010. The DNA, a kind of genetic fingerprint, which had been secured from the clothing and bedding of the deceased, was compared with the DNA in the databases. There was indeed a match. This led to a freelance financial advisor who was an acquaintance of Ursula M. at the time. He was even interrogated, but there was no evidence to suggest that the man was the perpetrator. In 2010, he had been sentenced to 2 years and 5 months in prison for attempted aggravated assault on his then-girlfriend, whom he had strangled with a cord. Presumably, there had been an argument between the 28-year-old man and Ursula, who had rejected his advances. Twenty years after the cruel crime in Ahrensburg, the man, now 48 years old, was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the Lübeck Regional Court for the manslaughter of Ursula M. Justice had prevailed after all.