Castrated alive

A heinous crime took place in Leipzig in October 2011, involving 23-year-old Jonathan H., who was raped, stabbed 22 times, castrated, dismembered, and then thrown into the Elster basin in garbage bags. This cruel crime came to light when a man was looking for mushrooms on a gray Sunday in November not far from the Palmengarten. But instead of mushrooms, he found an arm on the bank of the Weiße Elster. He immediately notified the police. When they arrived and secured the arm, they discovered a second arm floating in the water near the bank. At first, the police assumed that the arms belonged to a suicide victim, as many people take their own lives in the Elster basin. But when they took a closer look at both arms, they noticed that all 10 fingertips had been chopped off. So it was a murder. The very next day, police divers searched for more body parts and found a disgustingly mutilated torso in the mud under the Zeppelin Bridge. Now it was time to establish the identity of the corpse. It was a young man with black hair. Since no missing person report matched the dismembered body, the criminal investigation department went public after two weeks and offered a reward of €5,000. A week passed before Maria B. reported to the police station. She had not heard from her acquaintance, Jonathan H., who was half Vietnamese, for some time, even though he had planned to travel with her and other friends from the Leipzig manga scene to Bavaria for a cosplay convention. Jonathan had already paid 150 euros of the entrance fee, but did not show up at the agreed meeting point at Leipzig Central Station. The description of Jonathan, who was 23 years old, athletic, and had black hair, matched the dismembered body. DNA samples confirmed that it was indeed Jonathan H. But who had murdered him in such a brutal manner? To answer this question, the criminal investigation department combed through Jonathan’s life. Jonathan grew up without his Vietnamese father, with his devoutly religious German mother. The relationship had broken down shortly after Jonathan’s birth. Jonathan had never met his father, who had returned to his homeland. Jonathan’s mother completely shielded her son, who was considered highly intelligent and attended the Christian Christopherus School in Droyßig near Zeitz, from the outside world. He was considered a lovable computer geek who was passionate about physics and whose favorite place was the school library, where he lost track of time and space when he was immersed in reference books, his favorite reading material. In 2008, Jonathan graduated from high school and moved into his own apartment in southwest Leipzig, where everyday life caught up with him. Jonathan, who was even programming a computer game in his spare time, couldn’t cope with the structures of everyday life. Although he had occasional jobs in the IT industry, he was living on welfare shortly before his murder and also had a constantly changing circle of male acquaintances. Jonathan made no secret of his homosexuality, loved to draw comics, painted his fingernails black, and sometimes had his picture taken in women’s clothes. He shared his passion for manga with other manga fans who met once a month at McDonald’s at Leipzig Central Station, where they exchanged ideas about manga. Jonathan loved the manga “NARUTO,” one of the most popular manga series worldwide. It’s all about Naruto, who simply wants to become the best ninja in his village. Jonathan loved to escape into the fantasy world of manga, which allowed him to forget his everyday life with its rules and obligations. After Jonathan was identified, his Leipzig manga friends held a memorial march through Leipzig in his honor at the beginning of December. The criminal investigation department questioned many friends and acquaintances about the confused computer geek. But one of Jonathan’s closest friends did not respond to the police summons to testify as a witness. This was Benjamin H., who was the same age and whom Jonathan had met at a birthday party. The red-haired, introverted, gaunt guy with glasses was a computer geek like Jonathan. The two became friends. Benjamin came from Arnstadt in Thuringia and had been bullied by other children since childhood because of his stutter. He attended high school but had to leave due to his poor grades. He began training as a baker but secretly dreamed of becoming a science fiction author. When Benjamin moved to Leipzig, where he found an attic apartment on Spittastraße in the Lindau district, he began a second apprenticeship as a physical therapist. After Jonathan’s murder, he went into hiding. He had deregistered from the residents’ registration office without leaving a new address. In mid-December, his parents reported him missing. Using Benjamin’s cell phone bill, the criminal investigation department determined that he had spoken on the phone with a man from Kassel after Jonathan’s death. They had this phone monitored. When the officers heard a man stuttering in the background, the handcuffs clicked. Five months after the body parts were found in the Elster basin, Benjamin H. was arrested and made a confession, which he later retracted, only to finally confess to Jonathan’s murder after all. The evidence was overwhelming. The officers had found a dictaphone in Benjamin’s apartment in which he described his murder fantasies about a homosexual man, as well as traces of Jonathan’s blood in the bathroom and kitchen. In addition, his fingerprints were found on a supposed suicide note that had been found in Jonathan’s apartment. Benjamin had planned Jonathan’s murder meticulously. He had previously tried to lure a gay man into his apartment to kill him, but that attempt failed, which is why Jonathan had to pay the price. October 12, 2011, was Benjamin’s birthday. He invited Jonathan to his apartment to celebrate together. On that day, he wanted to give himself the gift of Jonathan’s murder. He knocked Jonathan unconscious with an iron bar, raped him, stabbed him 22 times in the neck and back with a knife, and then cut off his genitals. Jonathan’s death struggle lasted an agonizing 20 minutes. Benjamin then dragged him into the bathroom, where he cut him into pieces with a saw knife. He then packed the body parts into garbage bags and put them in the refrigerator before heading to another friend’s house, where a birthday party for Benjamin was taking place. Over the next few days, he disposed of the body parts in the Elster basin. To this day, Jonathan’s head has not been found. An expert diagnosed Benjamin with “schizoid personality disorder.” The Leipzig Assize Court sentenced Benjamin H. to 14 years in prison and had him admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where he is said to live to this day.