“Murderer” goes free – riddles about Vienna girl: what happened to Elisabeth?

The jury of the Vienna court took less than an hour to reach a unanimous verdict in the “cold case murder without a body”: the accused husband Heinrich G. (65) was not the murderer of his wife Elisabeth. The wife and mother had disappeared without a trace after the last meeting with him.

Almost 17 years ago.

case was too striking
The case was reopened by the federal detective’s “cold case group”. The case was too striking: a young mother abandons her beloved toddler to perhaps start a new life somewhere? As a witness, an official said that the technology, for example for collecting call data and locating mobile phones, had developed.

And their cell phone was always logged into their former shared home. On that December 6, 2005, the day of the disappearance.

Lived on child support and child support
For prosecutor Julia Kalmar a “mosaic that provided a total picture of individual pieces of evidence”. She is convinced that Heinrich G. killed his wife because she wanted a divorce. The possible loss of the daughter would also have been financial for the househusband – he lived on child support and child support. “I cannot understand why she is abandoning her child. Otherwise there would have been no charges and I would have had to drop the case.”

Not even for the best friend of the missing Elisabeth, witness on the final day of the four-day trial: “She was a mother with body and soul. But her husband did not consider her a necessary mother.” Elisabeth was planning a divorce, which made it clear to her friend that she would take her daughter with her.

Acquittal!
But the jury followed lawyer Thomas Reissmann, who called for the principle “in dubio pro reo” – in case of doubt for the accused. So acquittal!

The question remains: what happened to Elisabeth? An international manhunt is still underway: her body has never been found.