Murder of Maria Ladenburger

Maria Ladenburger (6 December 1996 – 16 October 2016) was a 19-year-old medical student from Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, who was found raped and drowned on 16 October 2016 in the river Dreisam.

He claimed to have come from Afghanistan and to have been born in 1999.

Khavari's fingerprints had been included in the Europe-wide Eurodac system to which Germany has access since January 2013 when he applied for asylum in Greece.

In Germany, because of his claimed age, he was granted asylum as an underage unaccompanied refugee and was placed with a foster family.

Following Khavari's arrest as a suspect for the rape, Stern wrote that in 2014, he had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for robbing a 20-year-old student and throwing her over a cliff in Corfu, Greece, in 2013.

The victim survived with heavy injuries.

This was confirmed by the suspect's Greek lawyer, and by a fingerprint match.

Khavari was released after one and half years in prison due to a general amnesty for juvenile offenders initiated by the Greek government.

He violated his probation in Greece by not regularly reporting to a police station and migrated to Germany where German authorities did not find out about his earlier conviction because Greece had not initiated an international search via Interpol.

During the Greek trial in 2014, Khavari told the court that he had been born in 1996, and that he had fled from Iran, both of which conflict with the claims made when he entered Germany.

Khavari had entered Germany as a refugee in November 2015.

It was later discovered that he had served a prison term for attempting to rob and murder a girl in Greece before entering Germany.

This prompted a discussion about possible failures in European systems of information exchange about refugees and migrants, and any criminal records they may have.

Maria Ladenburger was a 19-year-old medical student at the University of Freiburg.

Hussein Khavari entered Germany in November 2015 without identification.

On 3 December 2016, Freiburg police arrested Hussein Khavari, who had been identified by a hair found at the crime scene, and a CCTV recording from inside a tram.

DNA evidence linked him to the crime scene and he was ultimately convicted.

On the night of 15–16 October 2016, Ladenburger attended a party hosted by the university medical faculty.

She left the party at 2:37 a.m. and was returning home by bicycle.

She was raped by Khavari on her way near the Schwarzwald-Stadion and died of drowning in the river Dreisam shortly after 3:00 a.m. Khavari later claimed to have choked her with a scarf.

A jogger found her body later that morning.

Freiburg police formed a special commission consisting of 68 officers, questioned more than 1,400 people, and checked more than 1,600 clues.

Khavari was identified by a long strand of hair from a bleached undercut found in the bushes close to the crime scene.

A black scarf was also found on the river bed, close to the scene, with traces of Khavari's DNA on it.

Based on these findings, he was identified on a CCTV recording taped inside a tram in the vicinity on 17 October.

Based on a still from this recording, he was later discovered by a street patrol and arrested.

Police announced the arrest during a press conference on 3 December.

The chief of Freiburg's criminal investigation said: "It would be a relief for the parents of the dead" if Khavari would talk about the case.

As of the end of December 2016, the accused had refused to speak.

On 5 January 2017, the police requested the public's help in identifying a potentially critical witness.

After photos were published, the witness came forward.

The witness was considered "important."

According to police, Khavari's iPhone health tracking app provided "crucial evidence" in locating his exact movements while committing the crime.

In February 2017, the public prosecutor stated that a medical investigation had revealed that Khavari was not a minor, but was at least 22 years old at the time of the crime.

In March 2017, because of "doubts that could not be dismissed" Khavari was not accused in criminal court, where the penalty for murder could be life in prison, but instead, in juvenile court, where the same crime carries only a maximum 10-year sentence.

The trial began in September 2017 and Khavari confessed not only to the rape and murder of Ladenburger but confessed to lying about his age.

He was older than he had officially claimed to be.

A surveillance video from a Freiburg Tram taken on the day of the crime was presented at the trial.

The video shows that the accused had molested two other women shortly prior to the rape and murder of Ladenburger.

According to the testimony of Khavari's cell mate, Khavari had told him that at the age of 14, he had raped a 12-year-old girl in Iran.