In the wake of a high-profile crime: a German couple admitted to the murder of Ukrainian women and kidnapping of a child

In Germany, a husband and wife accused of murdering Ukrainian women Marina and Margarita Stetsenko admitted to the crime for the sake of kidnapping a child.

In March our publication told investigation murders of a Ukrainian refugee and her mother in Germany. A married couple was arrested on suspicion of the crime. German law enforcement officers quickly managed to find the missing child of a murdered Ukrainian woman.

The accused as tells Deutsche Welle, admitted to the murder of two Ukrainian women – 51-year-old refugee Marina Stetsenko and her 27-year-old daughter Margarita, in order to take the latter's newborn child. This married couple living in Germany.

In the court of Mannheim (federal state of Baden-Württemberg), the trial of a 45-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man on suspicion of joint murder began, the dpa agency reports on January 7, 2025. Accused gave confessions, which were read by their lawyers, and expressed remorse for what happened.

According to the prosecutor's office, the couple killed Marina Stetsenko and her daughter Margarita in order to take five week old baby the last one. The prerequisite for the crime, as investigators believe, was couple's desire to have a child.

About nine days are allotted for the trial. The verdict could be handed down on February 21. The girl, who is now about eleven months old, lives in Ukraine with her aunt, who is a co-plaintiff in the case.

The defendants decided to kill the girl and her mother a week after the birth of the child, in February 2024, the indictment said:

“To increase the chances of her child being kidnapped, the 44-year-old woman joined a support group for Ukrainian refugees on Telegram, through which she contacted the 27-year-old victim in January 2024 when she was looking for a translator for the upcoming birth of her daughter.”

Later, on March 6, 2024, while visiting a restaurant, the couple “secretly injected” both women with sedatives. The alleged criminals then pretended that the 51-year-old woman, who felt unwell, was being taken to the hospital, and the girl and her newborn daughter were taken home.

After that a man allegedly killed an unconscious mother on a lake in Bad Schönborn by hitting her on the head several times with an unknown object. Some time later, he killed a young woman in Hockenheim in the same way, and burned the corpse. The couple then went home with the child. The body of the older Ukrainian woman was discovered on March 20 after a two-week search. Investigators found him on the shore of a lake near Hockenheim.

The mother, grandmother and child lived in a refugee center in the Rhine-Neckar district after they moved to Germany from Ukraine to escape the war. Police arrested the couple on March 13, 2024, after investigators discovered she was carrying a child.

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