Man kills family, self ‘for fear of arrest over fake Covid pass’

07.12.2021 17:04

Man kills family, self ‘for fear of arrest over fake Covid pass’
A police vehicle is parked in front of house where bodies of five family members were found south of Berlin, Germany, on December 4, 2021. © Reuters / Christian Mang

A suicide note left by a man in Germany who killed his wife and three kids before taking own life, claims he feared he’d be arrested and his children taken away over a falsified Covid-19 vaccination certificate, investigators say.

On Tuesday, German prosecutors revealed possible motives behind a chilling murder case that shocked Germany over the weekend. Five bodies of family members, with gunshot wounds, were found in their house in the town of Koenigs Wusterhausen, not far from Berlin.

The 40-year-old father appears to have killed his own wife and three children aged 10, eight and four before taking his own life, investigators said. The police found a firearm in the house, but it is currently unclear if it was used in the killings.

According to the authorities, the man had left a suicide note in which he confessed to having obtained a forged Covid-19 vaccination certificate for his wife. He added that the wife’s employer found out that it was fake.

Allegedly, the couple began fearing that they would be arrested and their children would be taken from them, Chief Public Prosecutor Gernot Bantleon told the German Press Agency on Tuesday.

The prosecutors have not revealed any further details about the case.