Dutchman who was arrested in Austria for accident, now suspected of murdering his wife | Abroad

The police in Austria accidentally arrested a 69-year-old Dutchman suspected of murdering his wife (62) in the night from Thursday to Friday. The man was arrested after he became aggressive in a single-vehicle accident and tried to flee.

Early Friday morning, the man caused a one-sided traffic accident on the A2 motorway near Grafenstein in the state of Carinthia. Because he was trapped, the fire brigade turned out. Afterwards, he spoke of ‘an intervention that you don’t experience every day’.

“When we arrived at the scene, we found a heavily damaged vehicle,” the fire brigade writes on Facebook. “The obviously confused driver was still pressing the accelerator but was unable to continue. When a colleague leaned over to remove the key from the ignition in the vehicle, the driver attacked him. After several attempts, he managed to get hold of the key, after which the central locking was activated.’

To flee

The driver then managed to leave the vehicle under his own power and attempted to flee. “He was extremely aggressive and did not shy away from injuring aid workers. With combined forces he was then overpowered, “said the fire service.

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the © Feuerwehr Volkermarkt

Weird text message

An unusual case followed for the police. The man, a Dutchman living in the area, was arrested and taken to a police station in Klagenfurt. At around 5 a.m., the central control room received an emergency call from a Dutch woman (40) who said she had received a bizarre text message from her father: ‘If you are reading this, your mother and I are no longer alive.’

A police patrol went to the home of the parents in Eberndorf and found the remains of the 62-year-old mother in the kitchen. She appeared to have died from stabbing injuries. The motive of the man and the course of events are not yet known.

“An attempt has been made to interrogate him, but that has not succeeded because the suspect is behaving very aggressively, also in his cell,” said police spokesman Mario Nemetz. According to him, it is still unclear whether the 69-year-old Dutchman deliberately caused the single-vehicle accident on the A2 to take his own life after the murder. It is also unclear whether he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crime or the accident. “After his arrest, a blood test was taken, the results of which are not yet known.”

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The couple had lived in Eberndorf since January 2023.
The couple had lived in Eberndorf since January 2023. ©Google Street View

Recently moved

According to the spokesman, the preliminary autopsy report confirms that the victim died as a result of ‘massive’ violence. “Most likely from a box cutter found at the crime scene,” the spokesman said. The state detective is investigating the case. The suspect will appear before the examining magistrate on Monday. He decides on his pre-trial detention.

According to Austrian media, the Dutch couple lived in the Alpine country for about ten years and moved early this year from the Hermagor district, close to the Slovenian border, to Eberndorf in the Völkermarkt district, located more than 100 kilometers further east. There they lived ‘inconspicuously’, neighbors explained.

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