Parents searched for their missing 23-year-old daughter in Germany after she stopped answering their calls. Eventually, they came across a gruesome find, the bloodied corpse of a young woman in a parked Mercedes.

They were sure that she was their daughter, but she was not, because it turned out that this was another woman who looked very much like her.

Their daughter was immediately suspected of murder, possibly faking her own death, police and prosecutors say.

The case of a German woman of Iraqi origin who lives in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt in southern Germany and whose name is Shahraban K., according to the German newspaper Bild, shocked many in the country.

In August 2022, the police launched a marathon of investigations, stating that what appeared to be a woman was “the victim of a violent crime.” However, doubts soon arose as to her identity, as the victim’s DNA and fingerprints did not match those of the missing woman, and “rumors” also reached the police that the missing woman was in the area.

A day later, police announced “completely new circumstances” in their investigation and arrested the missing 23-year-old along with a compatriot from Kosovo named Shekir K. on suspicion of murder.

The victim, who was a beauty blogger, was identified by the German media as 23-year-old Khadija O., originally from Algeria, who investigators said bore a “striking” resemblance to the missing woman.

Authorities did not name a motive for the murder at the time. They now believe the suspects were looking for someone believed to be a young woman “who wanted to hide due to a family dispute” and therefore chose to fake her own death, according to a statement released by prosecutors last Monday.

Police believe the suspect “had been talking online with several young women” who looked like her and tried to lure them into meeting her by making various promises.

In fact, a few weeks before her death, Khadija O., 23, received an Instagram message purporting to be from rapper Luna inviting her to star in an upcoming music video. The message, however, aroused Khadija’s suspicions and she immediately sent the rapper a message of her own, according to the German newspaper Bild.

In a voicemail to the rapper, he reportedly asked her to confirm it was him. The rapper’s response came quickly: “It’s fake sister. Do not answer!

According to the evidence so far available, this was just one of the strategies the suspect is accused of using to convince his victim to meet her.

It is believed that a week after receiving the message from the rapper, Khadija was the victim of yet another clever ploy, this time using cosmetics.

So, on August 16, two suspects went to Heilbronn, in the neighboring state of Baden-Württemberg, to collect the victim from his home, police said. They then took the unfortunate 23-year-old girl to a wooded area and stabbed her several times before returning to Ingolstadt, where they left her body in the back of a car.

“The crime weapon has not been found, but the evidence is overwhelming,” a police spokesman told Bild. “The victim was killed with over 50 stab wounds and his face was completely disfigured.”

“It’s not every day that you come across a case like this, especially one with such a spectacular twist,” a police spokesman told Bild. “On the day we found the body, nothing could have suspected us of such a development.”

Source: Washington Post, Guardian, Telegraph.