imago
The judiciary in Hesse is currently dealing with a very bizarre case in which a loner is believed to have hoarded more than 3,000 human bones. The 54-year-old man is said to have hardly any social contacts and was completely thrown off course by the death of his mother around 10 years ago.
54-year-old digs up bones and urns in cemetery
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Since the death of his mother, Harry D. can be found almost every day at the cemetery in Bad Soest, where he was tending his mother’s grave. Apparently, the man, who actually works as a janitor in a clinic, found pleasure in this activity. Apparently, this is also why he had applied for a vacant position as a cemetery gardener in Frankfurt am Main. But the man did not get the job and then began to steal urns and human bones probably in revenge because of the rejected application. In September 2019, police had found 327 urns in the man’s apartment. They also came across ash capsules and animal urns, 381 grave slabs, 84 grave goods and “a large number of bones”. These, according to the authorities, are about 3,000 human bones, which Harry D. had dug up from ossuaries and from expired graves. “I am not otherwise aware of such a bizarre case,” confirmed Nadja Niesen, the senior public prosecutor in Frankfurt. The charge against Harry D. is grand theft and disturbing the peace of the dead in 131 cases. Although there are more cases, only this number of cases can be clearly assigned. ,
Harry D. stole urns and bones at Frankfurt cemetery
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All the bones are believed to have come from the Frankfurt cemetery.
“The accused is said to have forcibly opened the partly screwed, partly glued plates at the urn walls and then removed the urns,” the prosecutor believes. The case had only come to light by chance. “We checked the urn walls. It was noticed that some compartments were empty,” confirmed a spokesman for the cemetery administration. Thereupon one had then installed hidden cameras on the cemetery grounds. However, the perpetrator could only be seen from behind on the videos. Harry D. was caught during a police identity check. The officers then found one of the stolen urns in an alleged bag of potting soil.
Process against Harry D. was adjourned
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Last week, the trial against the man had begun. However, this then had to be adjourned because the defendant, who also suffers from Long-Covid complained of shortness of breath. “I can’t breathe,” Harry D. shouted in court. He was then treated in a side room. Following this, Judge Tatyana Peshteryanu set the new court date for next February. Already in May 2020, Harry D. was sentenced to 2 years of probation for similar acts. Currently, a psychiatric report is being prepared to determine whether the man is fully culpable. In the case of a confession, Harry D. will probably be able to hope for a lenient sentence.