He is said to have killed two elderly women and is also responsible for the robbery of an 83-year-old man in the area. Now a suspect has been arrested in Schwäbisch Hall. It is a 31-year-old Serb. He is in custody, police said on Wednesday.

The man is strongly suspected of having killed an 89-year-old in Michelbach an der Bilz last week and a 77-year-old in Schwäbisch Hall last December.

The women's bodies were found in their home. A murder weapon had been secured in the vicinity of the crime scene in Michelbach. What this is about was not initially disclosed. It is still unclear whether the alleged perpetrator is also responsible for other crimes.

Jigsaw pieces put together

In the case of the deaths in Schwäbisch Hall, the public prosecutor's office assumes murder out of greed. There, the suspect is said to have stolen a low to mid-three-digit amount of money. In the case of those killed in Michelbach, the investigators spoke of manslaughter. "Numerous puzzle pieces have led to the identification of the perpetrator," said police chief Reiner Müller. So DNA traces were found. In addition, a phantom image of the alleged perpetrator, which was made after the robbery in Ilshofen, contributed to the success of the search. The suspect threatened his victim with a gun in mid-January.

The 31-year-old has not yet provided any information on the allegations, said senior public prosecutor Harald Lustig. According to his own statements, the accused traveled to Germany with his wife and two children at the beginning of December. He does not have a registration address in Germany.

The death of the elderly has unsettled people in the Schwäbisch Hall region. The death of a 94-year-old senior whose body was found in Schwäbisch Hall in October 2020, very close to the apartment of the dead 77-year-old, has also not been clarified so far. Here, too, the police are assuming a homicide. In September 2021, the public prosecutor initially closed the investigation file because there was no further information.