Two girls are suspected of murdering a 12-year-old schoolgirl who was found dead in a forest in western Germany last weekend, Reuters reports.

In a new case that has shocked Germany, police found the lifeless body of a student, identified only as Louise in statements by authorities, near a bike path late last week.

Her parents notified authorities the day before after she visited a friend.

According to statements made to the media by prosecutor Mario Manweiler, investigators determined that Luisa died of stab wounds. He stated that the murder weapon has not yet been found.

“We believe that this crime was committed by two children,” he said.

The prosecutor also said that they do not fall under the German criminal code because they are only 12 and 13 years old respectively. In Germany, only minors who have reached the age of 14 can be charged.

Mannweiler also said there was no evidence that anyone else was involved in the attack.

The local press reported that the two children were girls, and later the prosecutor also named the suspects as women.

Shocking murders in Germany

Residents of the small town of Freudenberg, located 80 kilometers east of Cologne, were in a state of shock after the discovery of the crime, as a sign of grief, local flags were lowered.

In recent years, German investigators have uncovered several cases that have shocked public opinion in the country led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

In November 2021, a woman from the western city of Solingen was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering five of her six children, aged one to eight.

The tragedy occurred on September 3, 2020, in the family’s apartment in Solingen near Wuppertal. During breakfast, the woman put something in the children’s drinks to make them fall asleep.

The eldest son survived without being at home. During the trial, the prosecution claimed that she first sedated the children and then drowned or suffocated them one by one.

Just one month later, German police opened the case of a man who killed his wife and 3 young children before taking his own life by forging a Covid certificate and feared authorities would take his children away after discovering the fact.

German police found the bodies of two adults, both in their 40s, and three children, ages 4, 8 and 10, in the family’s home in the Königs-Wosterhausen commune, south of the capital Berlin.

Police were notified by people who saw lifeless bodies through the windows of the house.