Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 11
An American man was sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Monday for the rape and murder of a tourist and the attempted murder of her friend, both from the US, in a brutal attack near the country’s most famous tourist destination.
Troy Phillip Bohling, 31, was accused of luring two female tourists, Eva Liu, 21, and Kelsey Chang, 22, whom he met along a hiking path off the trail, promising to show the two recent University of Illinois graduates an idyllic spot for taking selfies near the Marienbruecke, a bridge over a gorge with a view of the castle, one of Germany’s most famous tourist attractions.
There, in the rugged landscape near the castle, he throttled and raped the 21-year-old woman and threw her 22-year-old friend down a 100-metre ravine when she rushed to help her. The elder of the pair survived with severe injuries, after being caught on a tree branch.
The 21-year-old was also tossed over the ledge after Troy B. raped her. She died in hospital several hours later. The court found that the strangling alone would have been fatal. At one point the man used his phone, which prosecutors found full of violent pornography, to film himself strangling her with his belt.
The man was caught later the same day after a massive police search.
The judge at the court in Kempten, southern Germany, sentenced the man to life imprisonment, noting that the crime was one of “particular gravity” – a finding that means the perpetrator will not receive automatic parole after 15 years as is the case for non-aggravated murder.
Source: Reuters
