There is still “no hot lead” to the perpetrator, who had previously knocked the child’s father unconscious with a bottle, said the head of the Tyrolean State Criminal Police Office, Katja Tersch.
So far, “a few indications” have been received from the population, which are being processed successively, explained Tersch. One is further “glad about every hint that comes in”. The investigators are also continuing to deal with the complex process of evaluating traces. The boy’s injured 37-year-old German father had already been questioned. When asked if he might be questioned again, Tersch said it was an “ongoing process.” In any case, it was “not a case like any other,” emphasized the experienced investigator. But intensive efforts are being made to “forcefully bring him to an explanation”.
An autopsy confirmed that six-year-old Leon drowned. There was no evidence of any violence that could have been inflicted on the boy. The 37-year-old was walking with his boy, who was in a pram, on a promenade in the market town next to the Ache at 4 a.m. the day before last Sunday when the crime happened. According to the LKA, the fact that the man was out with the boy at this time is “quite normal behavior” and nothing unusual. The man stated that he often did this to calm his mentally handicapped child.
Suddenly the perpetrator approached the father from behind in the area of the main school jetty and gave him a targeted and powerful hit on the back of the head with a bottle. The man lay unconscious. The perpetrator is said to have taken the man’s wallet and mobile phone. He fled in an unknown direction. The cell phone and wallet were eventually found in the immediate vicinity of the crime scene.
According to the current state of investigation, the six-year-old finally got out of the stroller on his own and fell into the river. There was only an embankment between the river and the promenade. The child was aborted and finally found dead around 600 meters downstream.
At around 5:20 a.m., the father was found unconscious by a passer-by. This informed the rescue. In the course of the assistance, the 37-year-old then asked about his child. A search operation was then initiated and the six-year-old was finally recovered an hour later.
Source: Nachrichten
