Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
A heinous crime took place in Leipzig in October 2011 against 23-year-old Jonathan H., who was raped, stabbed 22 times, castrated, dismembered and subsequently thrown into the Elster basin in bin bags. This gruesome crime came to light when, on a grey Sunday in November, a man was searching for mushrooms not far from the Palmengarten. But instead of mushrooms, he found an arm on the bank of the White Elster. He immediately alerted 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 the arms belonged to a suicide victim, as many people took their own lives in the Elster basin. But when they examined both arms more closely, they realised that all ten fingertips had been severed. It was, therefore, a murder. The very next day, police divers searched for further body parts and found a gruesomely mutilated torso in the silt beneath the Zeppelin Bridge. The task now was to establish the identity of the body. It was a young man with black hair. As no missing persons report matched the dismembered body, the criminal investigation department appealed to the public after two weeks and offered a reward of 5,000 euros. A week passed before Maria B. came forward at the police station. She had not heard from her acquaintance, the half-Vietnamese Jonathan H., 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 towards the admission fee, but had not turned up at the agreed meeting point at Leipzig Central Station. The description of Jonathan – a 23-year-old with an athletic build and 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. Their relationship had broken down shortly after Jonathan’s birth. Jonathan had never met his father, as the latter had returned to his homeland. Jonathan’s mother effectively shielded her son from the outside world; he was regarded as highly intelligent and was a pupil at the Christian Christopherus School in Droyßig near Zeitz. He was regarded as a likeable computer geek with a passionate interest in physics; his favourite place was the school library, where he would lose track of time and space whilst immersed in specialist books – his favourite reading material. In 2008, Jonathan passed his A-levels and moved into his own flat in south-west Leipzig, where everyday life caught up with him. For Jonathan, who even spent his spare time programming a computer game, struggled to cope with the structures of everyday life. Although he had occasional jobs in the IT sector, he was living on Hartz IV benefits shortly before his murder and was also constantly involved with different men. Jonathan made no secret of his homosexuality; he loved drawing comics, painting his fingernails black and, on occasion, having his photograph taken whilst wearing women’s clothes. He shared his passion for manga with other manga fans, who met once a month at McDonald’s by Leipzig Central Station to discuss manga. Jonathan loved the manga NARUTO, which is one of the most popular manga series worldwide. It centres on 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 everyday life with its rules and obligations. After Jonathan had been identified, his Leipzig manga friends organised a memorial march through Leipzig in his honour at the start of December. The criminal investigation department questioned many friends and acquaintances about the clueless computer geek. However, one of Jonathan’s closest friends did not respond to the summonses to give evidence as a witness at the police station. This was Benjamin H., who was the same age and whom Jonathan had met at a birthday party. The red-haired, introverted, gaunt lad with glasses was, like Jonathan, a computer geek. The two became friends. Benjamin was from Arnstadt in Thuringia, where he had been bullied by other children since childhood because of his stammer. Although he attended grammar school, he had to leave due to his poor marks. He began an apprenticeship as a baker, but secretly dreamt of becoming a science fiction writer. When Benjamin moved to Leipzig, where he found a top-floor flat on Spittastraße in the Lindau district, he began a second apprenticeship as a physiotherapist. After Jonathan’s murder, he went into hiding. He had deregistered with the residents’ registration office without leaving a new address. In mid-December, his parents had reported him missing. Using a mobile phone bill belonging to Benjamin, the criminal investigation department established that he had spoken on the phone to a man from Kassel following Jonathan’s death. They had that phone tapped. When the officers heard a man stammering in the background, the handcuffs clicked. Five months after the body parts were found in the Elster reservoir, Benjamin H. was arrested. He initially made a confession, which he later retracted, only to eventually confess to Jonathan’s murder after all. The evidence was overwhelming. The officers had found a dictaphone in Benjamin’s flat on which he described his fantasies of murdering a gay man, as well as traces of Jonathan’s blood in the bathroom and kitchen. Furthermore, Jonathan’s fingerprints were found on a supposed suicide note discovered in his own flat. Benjamin had planned Jonathan’s murder down to the last detail. He had previously tried to lure a gay man into his flat with the intention of killing him, but that attempt had failed, which is why Jonathan became his victim. 12 October 2011 was Benjamin’s birthday. He invited Jonathan to his flat to celebrate together. On that day, he intended to treat himself to the murder of Jonathan. He beat Jonathan unconscious with an iron bar, raped him, stabbed him 22 times in the neck and back with a knife, before cutting off his genitals. Jonathan’s agony lasted a torturous 20 minutes. He then dragged him into the bathroom, where he cut him into pieces with a saw blade. He then packed the body parts into bin bags and placed them in the fridge before setting off to another friend’s house, where a birthday party for Benjamin was taking place. Over the following days, he disposed of the body parts in the Elster reservoir. 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’ imprisonment and ordered him to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where he is said to be living to this day.
