By Joerg Völkerling
Unbelievable turning point in the case of the drowned Leon († 6) in Tyrol: On Monday his father Florian A. (38) was arrested on suspicion of murder!
He is said to have only faked the robbery on himself and lied to the investigators for months.
On Wednesday morning at 6:09 a.m., the State Criminal Police Office of Tyrol announced: “There is a suspicion that the alleged robbery did not take place and that the father himself is responsible for the boy’s death.”
The Incredible Case
The case caused horror in Austria and Germany at the end of August: at 4 a.m. the fitness trainer from Hesse was out and about with his son, who suffers from the rare syngap syndrome, on a promenade in St. Johann in Tirol.
At around 6:30 a.m., a walker found the unconscious father with a head laceration on the path, the buggy was empty. Leon was found drowned on a sandbank in the Kitzbüheler Ache an hour later.
Again and again wanted calls
“Schnuffi, we miss you sooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!”: This was the last statement from the family on Facebook shortly after Christmas.
The sympathy for the fate of the bereaved was huge, Sandra and Florian A. repeatedly turned to the public with a search call: sometimes they were looking for a man with an eagle hoodie, who is said to have crossed the path of father and son shortly before the alleged attack , sometimes they showed the picture of a “Pink Hugo” bottle with which Florian A. is said to have been crushed.
Florian A. denied the allegations in a first hearing and confirmed his previous account, the LKA said. “However, based on the results of the investigation so far, the public prosecutor’s office assumes that there is an urgent suspicion of murder and the pretense of a criminal offense.” Now the Innsbruck Regional Court has to decide whether to impose pre-trial detention.