Truck Driver Volker Eckert, Who Confessed to Six Murders, Dies in Custody Before He Can Be Charged
Eckert took his own life in his cell the day after his 48th birthday. Police later said investigators attributed at least 13 killings to him.
Published
Volker Eckert had confessed to killing six women and girls in Germany, Spain and France. On the morning of July 2, 2007, he was found dead in his cell, having taken his own life before prosecutors could bring charges.
Eckert, a long-distance truck driver, had marked his 48th birthday in custody the day before, awaiting trial. He had been held since his arrest near Cologne in November 2006, after a camera in Spain recorded his truck where a woman's body was later found. Police said he had confessed to six murders, among them the 1974 killing of a 14-year-old girl in Plauen in the former East Germany, and that DNA proved his guilt in five of the six.
Because Eckert died before he could be tried, he was never convicted. In December 2007, police in Upper Franconia said their investigation, which reviewed nearly a hundred cases, had found that he could be identified with certainty as the killer in three more cases, in the former East Germany, Italy and France. Everything pointed to him in four others, three in the Czech Republic and one in France, bringing the number of killings investigators attributed to him to at least 13.
Sources
- 'Fernfahrer von Hof': Prostituierten-Mörder soll 13 Frauen getötet haben, Der Spiegel (with AFP)
- At first he just toyed with the idea of killing, The Guardian
- Hofer Serienkiller tötete 13 Frauen, Frankenpost
Related News
- November 22, 2006: German Truck Driver Volker Eckert Admits Killing Five Women in Spain and France, Police Say