A 12-year-old German schoolgirl was stabbed 32 times by classmates
20 March 2023, 14:30 | Updated: 20 March 2023, 14:38
A 12-year-old schoolgirl was stabbed 32 times by her classmates after being lured to a woodland near Freudenberg, Germany.
German prosecutors found the body of schoolgirl Luise F. in a woodland near Freudenberg last week after she was reported as missing by parents.
Luise was reported as missing on Saturday March 11 when she left a classmate's house but didn't make it home. Police launched a search party for the girl and found her body the following day in a nearby woodland area.
Two of the schoolgirl's classmates, aged 12 and 13, confessed to the killing after her body was located.
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"The child died as a result of numerous knife wounds and the resulting loss of blood," Koblenz prosecutor Mario Mannweiler said in a press conference.
While the girls' motive behind the killing remains unclear, claims have been made it was related to an ongoing dispute between the three. Other claims suggest Luise was being bullied by the perpetrators.
Police launched an additional search operation for the murder weapon after the young girl's body was found, which is now believed to be a nail file.
It is also thought the girls pushed Luise down an embankment and placed a plastic bag over her head.
Despite confessing to the crime, the law in Germany means the girls cannot be prosecuted for the crime, as 14 is the country's age of criminal responsibility.
Hendrik Wüst, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, said that the whole state is grieving.
"It is incomprehensible and unbearable that children are capable of such horrible acts," he added.
Luise's school, Esther-Bejarano comprehensive school, also uploaded a message of condolences to the homepage of their website.
"We lost our pupil, classmate and friend Luise at the weekend.
"Far too early, she was violently torn from our midst and from her family. Our thoughts and wishes are with her family and friends now and in the coming days."
Her parents left a lighted candle outside their home with the words "You are now a star in heaven."
