Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
One of Austria’s most thrilling criminal cases involves the gruesome murders of women by Wolfang Ott, whose crimes only came to light by chance. It all began with cries for help from a woman that residents heard coming from a house in Vienna’s 23rd district, Liesing, on the morning of June 14, 1995. When they ran to the house, they discovered a completely naked woman tied up by her hands and feet on the balcony, screaming desperately for her life. The residents immediately alerted the police, who freed the traumatized woman from the house. She was 43-year-old Hannelore F., who had been strangled and tied up the day before while parking her car in Perchtoldsdorf by a man who had locked her in that house. She was held captive there for over 20 hours, during which time the man repeatedly raped and abused her until he left the house to withdraw money using her ATM card. The house belonged to 38-year-old film producer Wolfgang Ott, who was heavily in debt. During a search of the house, investigators found further traces of other women who had been missing for days. Had the investigators stumbled upon a sex offender and murderer of women? Wolfgang Ott, who was on the run, had already attracted attention at the age of 10 for strangling classmates. At the age of 15, he was sentenced to 15 months’ probation with therapy for sexually assaulting a girl, but he never began the therapy. Further investigations revealed something terrible. It turned out that Wolfgang Ott had attempted to kidnap women on several occasions, but had failed twice. In 1994, he had attempted to kidnap a student named Saskia K. in Perchtoldsdorf, but was interrupted. Ott was identified during a lineup, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence. He then attempted to kidnap a 34-year-old woman in Punkersdorf on May 14, 1995, but had to flee when residents noticed him and rushed to the woman’s aid. However, on May 30, 1995, Ott finally managed to take a woman into his custody by force. In Vienna, he abducted 23-year-old bank employee Sonja S. on the open street and held her captive for three days in his house in Vienna-Liesing, where he repeatedly raped and abused her. He then drove her to Styria. On the banks of the Salza River, he drowned Sonja, who was naked, bound, and had a concrete ring around her legs. Her body was recovered from the Enns River near Großreifling on June 26. Wolfgang Ott had tasted blood. A few days later, on June 10, 1995, he kidnapped 19-year-old high school graduate Karin M. in Wildalpen, raped and abused her, before strangling her on the banks of the Salza River and burying her in a wooded area in Palfau. Her body was not discovered until June 6, 1997. Two days after the murder of Karin M., he kidnapped 43-year-old Hannelore F., who was rescued from Ott’s house by the police. Since then, Wolfang Ott had been on the run, during which he kidnapped and raped two more women. One of the two women managed to escape. The other woman, a 23-year-old mountaineer named Gerda T., had to spend over 600 kilometers in the trunk of Ott’s van. He had driven her to the banks of the Salza River. But Gerda T. was lucky; she was able to convince Wolfgang Ott that she wanted to meet him again, which is why he actually let her go. Eight days later, on June 20, 1995, Wolfgang Ott, who had disguised himself as a German tourist on a bicycle, was arrested by the gendarmerie. Just three days later, not far from where Sonja S.’s body was found, the body of 34-year-old Helga V. was discovered. Whether Wolfgang Ott was responsible for her death and that of 17-year-old Martina Posch, who was found on the banks of Lake Mondsee in Upper Austria on November 22, 1986, has not yet been clarified. Wolfgang Ott, who had no compassion for his victims and complained about his parents, who were devout Jehovah’s Witnesses, wanted to take his own life before the trial began. In 1996, he asked his lawyer to smuggle a dose of poison into prison for him, which the lawyer vehemently refused to do. On October 3, 1996, Wolfgang Ott was sentenced to life imprisonment and placement in an institution for mentally abnormal offenders for the murder of Sonja S. On February 24, 1999, he was again sentenced to life imprisonment by the Leoben Regional Court for the murder of Karin M. On July 1, 2004, Wolfgang Ott made his first attempt to escape. He was working in the carpentry shop at the Graz-Karlau correctional facility. There, he hid in a box, where his fellow inmates loaded him onto a truck that was supposed to drive to the Maria Lankowik satellite camp. However, during a routine check at the prison gate, Wolfgang Ott was found and arrested. As punishment, Wolfgang Ott was removed from his job in the carpentry workshop. In addition, he was placed in solitary confinement for three weeks. As a result of his escape attempt, a positive frequency measuring device was installed in the lock area. After Wolfgang Ott was found in his prison cell at the Stein prison on April 24, 2017, with 20 painkiller patches, he was admitted to the Krems hospital, where he was returned to the prison after three days, where he remains to this day.
