In the efforts to clarify the case of Claudia Otto, who was murdered 35 years ago in Lohmar, there has again been a surprising turn.
The Bonn Regional Court lifted the arrest warrant against Detlef M. on Thursday due to a lack of suspicion and suspended the main hearing until further notice.
A week ago, the chamber heard several experts and now came to the conclusion that the only evidence in the murder case - two DNA traces of the defendant on the body of the victim - had not been properly examined.
It is possible that different traces of the victim and the accused could have been mixed up in the laboratories entrusted with the evaluation.
The court ordered further investigations and released the 66-year-old M.
M. has already been in prison for more than 30 years for a double murder in Eslohe in Sauerland in 1988 and various property and drug offenses.
In the case of Claudia Otto, he has been the focus of investigators several times.
Immediately after the murder of the 23-year-old woman, M. could not be proven with the criminal resources available at the time.
It was not until December 2017 that cold case investigators were able to reveal M.'s genetic fingerprint - with the help of tiny skin particles that had been found on Claudia Otto's body in 1987.
However, since the trace of an unknown person was still detected, the arrest warrant had to be lifted again in 2018.
After a further check, the experts were then sure that the second track came from an LKA employee, which is why the main proceedings against M. were opened three weeks ago.