Femicide: Woman killed in Kelkheim – “I ran for my life”
In the morning there is not much left to remind us of the violent act that happened in Kelkheim on Tuesday evening. The market, which takes place every Wednesday, is sparsely attended, but people are bustling around the city center. The crime scene is just a few steps away from the market square. Blue circles are marked on the ground there – they stretch for dozens of meters and get bigger around the corner: remnants of forensics.
On Tuesday evening, a woman was allegedly killed with a stab weapon by her husband. The crime took place outdoors near the city’s market square. Witnesses overpowered the man and held him until police arrested him. The attacker became loud police injured. The act in front of many witnesses caused widespread horror. The motive and background were initially unclear. The alleged perpetrator is expected to appear before a judge in the late afternoon. Kelkheim is located in the Taunus, not far from Frankfurt.
«Everything is covered in blood. I ran for my life”
The crime was apparently preceded by an argument. An eyewitness reported that he was only about five meters away from the attack. A man who was possibly drunk stabbed the victim in the neck with a machete: “Everything was covered in blood. I ran for my life.”
The woman fled in the same direction and then – he didn’t see it again – apparently collapsed, says the witness, who only wanted to give his first name, Peter. The young man added that he only saw a single stab and then the attack was “over”.
The police initially spoke generally of a stabbing weapon, not a machete. According to her information, the attacked wife succumbed to her injuries at the crime scene near Frankfurter Strasse.
A walker who passed by on Wednesday morning also spoke of a machete. She says that many of her friends were watching the World Cup soccer match at a bar in the market square on Tuesday evening. They witnessed the crime and were all still very shocked.
The area was busy during the crime. “There are different locations there. “We had the public traffic accordingly,” explains a police spokesman. Pastors were on site. “It’s a corresponding psychological burden if you had to experience something like that.”
“Honestly: I am a woman”
The crime scene is only a few meters away from the market square. In front of a bakery, flowers and a few individual candles lie next to the blue forensic circles. Passers-by keep coming by and stop in surprise at the closed door of the bakery – they didn’t notice anything about the crime.
An older woman says she heard sirens and thought it was because of the soccer game. It was only when her daughter wrote to her asking whether she was okay that she found out about the crime. Little by little, people come in the morning with fresh flowers from the market stall around the corner to add them to the others. When asked why she was putting down a flower, one of the passersby answered: “Honestly: I’m a woman.” Women should be able to live in freedom in Germany, she says. That’s exactly why she was very touched by what happened.
The police and public prosecutor’s office have not yet commented on the question of whether the crime could have been a femicide. Femicide means that women are killed because of their gender – that is, because they are women. The most common form is the killing of women by partners or ex-partners. The motives for the gender-specific killing of women include male possessiveness, contempt for women, sexual frustration, misogyny as well as the desire for control and dominance.
“It happens way, way, way too often. I don’t have any words for it.”
Vladimir Milovac from Kelkheim says he has known the suspect for a long time and the woman killed for several months. His dog always played with her dog. The woman seemed very stressed and tired to him, the man was sometimes aggressive and threatened the woman, says Milovac. But he didn’t want to get involved. When he found out about the death of his friend that morning, he was very sad.
Another woman places a white rose next to the flowers in the morning. “I read that this morning,” she says. This left her “totally” affected. “We always have breakfast here,” she says, pointing to the bakery. “I put the rose down because you can’t do anything else.” What is it like when something like that happens in your hometown? “Very bad, of course. Unfortunately, it happens far, far, far too often. I don’t really have any words for it.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:260714-930-385700/6