A 27-year-old man has to answer to the Rostock Regional Court from Tuesday (1 p.m.) on charges of triple murder. In February of this year, the German is said to have brutally killed his father and sister and a few days later his mother in a family home in Rövershagen near Rostock. The man confessed during interrogations. If found guilty, he faces a life sentence.

The course of the crime was presumably characterized by deep hatred – but the exact motive remained unclear for the time being. On February 7, the then 26-year-old is said to have shot his sleeping father four arrows in the back of the head with a crossbow. Since the 52-year-old was not dead immediately, the son is said to have taken a garden machete from a shed and stabbed his victim with it. The father bled to death.

On the same day, according to the indictment, the man lured his sister into the parental home. Under the pretext that he had a surprise for her, he made the 25-year-old kneel down in the hallway he had laid out with pond liner and fleece and put on earmuffs and opaque glasses. Then he is said to have shot her three arrows from behind in the head with the crossbow. Since she did not die immediately either, he is said to have stabbed her in the chest, which pierced her heart and lungs.

The mother bled to death

A few days later, on February 11, he picked up his previously absent 48-year-old mother from the train and brought her home to kill her too. He is also said to have gotten her to put on the prepared glasses under the pretext that he had a surprise for her. According to the investigation, he then shot her in the head and stabbed her right flank with a garden machete. The mother had bled to death.

To cover up his actions, the accused is said to have built coffins, procured a transporter and an excavator and then buried the bodies on February 28 about twelve kilometers away near Kösterbeck on a lonely edge of a field.

The public prosecutor's office accuses him of murder out of malicious intent, in two cases of murder to cover up a criminal offense and in one case of murder with base motives. The accused has been in custody since the end of March and has already confessed to the crimes in interrogations. The indictment will be read out on the first day of the trial. The 27-year-old may express himself. Witnesses are not invited for Tuesday. Eight main hearing days are scheduled for the trial until mid-December.