German police announced, on Tuesday, that two schoolgirls have confessed to stabbing a 12-year-old classmate to death, in a case that shocked the country.
The victim, who was identified by her first name Louise, went missing on Saturday afternoon when she left a friend’s house near Freudenberg in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Louise’s body was found the next day in a wooded area near her home.
“The child died as a result of numerous knife wounds that caused her to bleed,” said Mario Manfeller, the public prosecutor in Koblenz, in a press conference, adding that “there is no indication that she was subjected to any sexual abuse.”
Florian Luker, head of the homicide department at the Koblenz police, said two girls, aged 12 and 13, had confessed to the murder.
Locker said the girls “made statements about the matter and eventually confessed to the crime.”
Manfeller added that the two girls were familiar with the victim, Louise, but he refused to give more details because of the age of the defendants, as the two girls are under 14 years old, which is the minimum age that allows the law in the country to hold their owners criminally responsible.