A German court on Monday convicted an American of raping and murdering a woman and attempting to kill her partner near Neuschwanstein Castle, one of the country’s most famous tourist destinations.
A nearby bridge known for its panoramic views of the fairytale castle became a crime scene in June when the 31-year-old man attacked two young American women who were on a trip to Europe after graduating from college.
In imposing a life sentence, the court found “the particular gravity of the guilt”, a court spokesman said, adding that the man was charged with murder and rape resulting in death in relation to the first victim and attempted murder and grievous bodily harm to relation to the second. This means the defendant will not be eligible for parole after 15 years, although possibly at a later date.
(In Germany, life imprisonment is not for a specific period of time. A convicted person is usually allowed to apply for parole after 15 years and then, if rejected, reapply every two years.)
Under privacy laws, German authorities have not named the accused or the women, but family and friends identified the victims as Eva Liu, 21, who died, and Kelsey Chang, 22. The two friends had recently graduated from the University of Illinois.
According to police, the two friends did not know the attacker but had met him that day on Pöllat Bridge, which overlooks Neuschwanstein Castle in the southern German state of Bavaria, near the Austrian border. The man convinced the women to follow him down a little-used path that leads through the forest to the picturesque cliffs that surround the castle.
He then attacked Ms. Liu and began to choke her. Ms Chang tried to fend off the assailant but was quickly overpowered by the man and pushed into the Pöllat Gorge below, falling about 165 feet, according to German news agency DPA, which was present at the trial.
The man then strangled Ms. Liu with a belt and raped her. He filmed and photographed the attack, which the judge overseeing the trial said was probably intended as a “trophy” but became a major incriminating element in the case.
The assailant then pushed the woman into the canyon behind her friend. “He threw her away like a bag of garbage,” the judge told the court, according to DPA.
A helicopter rescue mission later retrieved both women and took them to hospital, but only Ms Chang survived.
The judge also told the court that the women may have been specifically targeted because of their Asian heritage, according to the DPA. He said the defendant apparently had a preference for Asian women, referring to pornographic films found by police in his possession.
A court spokesman said the defendant would have one week to appeal the decision.
Only if the ruling becomes final, he said, will it be decided whether the defendant should be extradited to the United States to serve his sentence or remain in Germany.
