In December, a 31-year-old Serb moved with his wife and two children to the Tullauer Hohe residential area in Schwäbisch Hall.

He took an apartment in a ten-story high-rise building.

From the apartments you have a beautiful view of the old town of Hall and the river Kocher.

On Tuesday afternoon, police investigators arrived in front of the house and took the man into custody for the time being.

Because they consider him a serial killer who is said to have murdered at least two senior citizens in the region in northern Baden-Württemberg.

Rudiger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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On Wednesday, the forensic technicians' cars were still parked in the 1970s settlement, which includes bungalow-like terraced houses and a few high-rise buildings.

In the large meeting room of the Blendstatthalle, the police and the public prosecutor's office presented the results of the investigation so far: "Despite all the suffering, after several weeks of uncertainty, we can now inform you that we were able to arrest a 31-year-old Serbian citizen on Tuesday afternoon." The arrest warrant is accomplished.

mystery about the motive

The alleged perpetrator is said to have killed an 89-year-old woman on the ground floor of an apartment building on January 25 in Michelbach an der Bilz, almost ten kilometers from Tullauer Höhe.

And on December 23 last year he is said to have murdered 77-year-old Heidemarie K. in the Hagenbach district of Hall on the Tullauerhöhe and stole a three-digit sum of money from her apartment.

The victim's apartment is less than 200 meters from the high-rise building where the suspect lived.

According to the public prosecutor, the case of the 89-year-old woman in Michelbach was manslaughter, and the dead man from Schwäbisch Hall was murder because the perpetrator could be proven to have greed as a murder characteristic in this case.

In addition, the man is said to have threatened another man with a gun on January 17.

Significant for the success of the search for the "Sokohöhe" were DNA traces and an apparently realistic identikit;

the tip that finally led to the arrest is said to have come from the neighborhood.

The motives of the alleged serial killer are puzzling.

Did he act alone?

Why did he bring his family to Germany?

Did material need drive him to these deeds?

"The suspect has not yet given any information about the motive for the crime," said senior public prosecutor Harald Lustig on Wednesday.

Is there a third victim?

In Germany, the man was not previously known to the police.

The investigators are currently working with the Serbian police to check whether he has ever committed a criminal offense in Serbia.

The suspect does not speak German and must have entered the country as a tourist.

"The fact that he entered the country in December 2022 comes from the suspect himself. You have to clarify whether he came to Germany earlier," said the senior public prosecutor.

Anyone entering Germany from Serbia may stay for 90 days.

The circumstances of his stay in Germany are also important because the suspect may have committed a third murder: on October 14, 2020, the 94-year-old millionaire Elfriede Huchler died.

She lived in a penthouse near the high-rise on Tullauerhöhe.

The dead man and the suspect lived on the same street.

Allegedly, the suspect could see the apartment of the brewery heiress known in Schwäbisch Hall from his apartment.

After her murder, the police used the special commission "Ring", which investigated intensively until 2021, DNA samples are said to have been taken from more than 100 people from the victim's environment.

But the police officers could not find a perpetrator at the time.

A year and a half ago, the police dissolved the Soko.

Now this murder is once again the focus of the investigation.

It remained unclear on Wednesday why the investigators, despite good DNA evidence, cannot yet say whether the third murder was also committed by the man.

"The DNA can have very different qualities," said Chief Detective Jörg Meinhardt.

It must now be clarified whether the suspect was in Germany, in the Hohenlohe region or in Schwäbisch Hall before December 2022.