A teenage Afghan asylum seeker has been arrested after allegedly raping and drowning a 19-year-old German student in the city of Freiburg. The student was the daughter of a top EU official, the UK’s Sunday Express reports, and volunteered regularly at a refugee center.
The victim, identified as Maria Ladenburger, was a medical student whose body was discovered in the Dreisam river Oct. 16. She attended a party on the night of the murder and was cycling home hours before her body was discovered.
The 17-year-old migrant was arrested Friday after he was identified by CCTV footage and his DNA was matched to the crime scene. The suspect, who arrived in Germany in 2015, has remained silent during interrogations.
The murder struck an already on-edge Germany after a similar incident took place two weeks later. A 27-year-old jogger was found dead Nov. 10 in the nearby Endingen forrest. An autopsy revealed the victim had also been raped before getting killed, but investigators have not found any connection between the cases, The Local reports.
Ladenburger’s father, Clemens Ladenburger, is a senior European Union official in Brussels.
The news of the arrest has sparked anger on social media. Germans have issued an ironic “thank you” to Chancellor Angela Merkel for opening the door to refugees in 2015.
Last month, German police arrested seven Afghan asylum seekers on suspicion of repeatedly raping an Iranian teenager in a refugee camp.
