00:00:40
52-year-old Rudolf Rupp was a creature of habit. On the evening of Friday October 12 2001, the
married father of two finished work for the day
00:00:51
and headed to his local drinking spot, the BSV
Neuburg. By day, the BSV was a popular sporting
00:00:59
ground for residents of Neuburg an der Donau,
a small Bavarian town in south-east Germany.
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Boasting two soccer fields, seven tennis courts
and a gymnasium, it provided a welcoming space
00:01:12
for locals of all ages to participate
in group fitness activities. By night, the clubhouse offered a casual pub-like atmosphere
for members of the community to socialise over .
00:01:27
Rudolf Rupp was a regular at the
clubhouse, as it was only a few minutes drive from the Rupp family’s farm.
After parking his beloved Mercedes outside,
00:01:37
Rudolf took a seat at his regular table, which
was off to the side away from other guests.
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As usual, he had come straight to the clubhouse
from the barn without stopping to change his
00:01:49
soiled overalls and gumboots. The stench
ensured other patrons kept their distance.
00:01:56
But it wasn’t the only reason they avoided Rudolf
Rupp. After a few beers, he was known to become
00:02:02
argumentative and obnoxious, and he had a
reputation around town for being a brawler.
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Over the next few hours, Rudolf sat
drinking wheat beers and smoking cigarettes.
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The clubhouse slowly cleared out and by
1AM, he was one of three patrons left. The pub’s owner Werner Steger
was ready to close for the night.
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He offered to give Rudolf a lift home but
Rudolf declined, saying he had his Mercedes
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out the front. Anyone who knew Rudolph knew that
his E230 model Mercedes was his pride and joy.
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Warner walked his three lingering customers
outside. Rudolf got into his car and reversed out,
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narrowly avoiding hitting a flower pot on
the way. At the car park exit, he made a
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right turn towards his home, the headlights of
his Mercedes slowly fading into the darkness.
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Later that same day, Saturday October 13,
49-year-old Hermine Rupp approached one of her
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neighbours in tears. Hermine explained that her
husband hadn’t come home the night before and she
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didn’t know what to do. She asked her neighbour if
they had a phone book she could borrow. She wanted
00:03:46
to call the BSV Neuburg to see if anyone there
could shed any light on Rudolf’s whereabouts.
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Hermine contacted the club and spoke to the
owner, Werner Steger. Werner was taken aback
00:04:01
to discover that Rudolf hadn’t made it home.
He recalled that Rudolf had been a little
00:04:06
unsteady on his feet when he left the previous
evening, but had otherwise seemed fine. There
00:04:13
had been no incidents at the clubhouse to suggest
Rudolf could have found himself in any trouble.
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As hours passed with no signs of Rudolf,
Hermine eventually contacted the police to
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report her husband missing. A check of Rudolf’s
tab at the BSV revealed that he’d drunk eight
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beers throughout the course of the evening. This
suggested a blood alcohol reading well over the
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legal limit. The obvious possibility was that
Rudolf could have gotten into a car accident.
00:04:44
The Rupp family lived less than two kilometres
from the BSV. A search of the roads in the
00:04:51
area revealed no sign of Rudolf, his prized
Mercedes, or any evidence of a car accident.
00:05:02
This wasn’t the first time police had been called
to the Rupp residence. Rudolf and Hermine lived on
00:05:08
the farm with their two daughters, 15-year-old
Andrea and 16-year-old Manuela. Both teens had
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mild intellectual disabilities and were required
to attend a special needs high school. However,
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they rarely attended, which prompted visits
from the authorities to check on their welfare.
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In the past, police had also been notified of
noise complaints stemming from the property.
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The Rupp family farm left a lot to be desired.
Rudolf inherited the property from his parents,
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but after his mother’s death in
1997, he struggled to maintain it. Everything had become run down, and the
agricultural endeavours barely turned a profit.
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To make ends meet, the Rupp’s rented the
upper level of their farmhouse to a tenant.
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When questioned, the tenant described
conditions in the Rupp home as anti-social.
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They said that the family argued
often and Rudolf was constantly drunk. The tenant mostly went out
of the way to avoid Rudolf.
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It was a sentiment shared by other associates
of the family, who described Rudolf as a bossy
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and domineering alcoholic. Some considered him a
tyrant who seemed to enjoy humiliating his family.
00:06:30
One relative said they were ashamed
to be associated with the Rupp’s. Yet, another described Rudolf as a helpful
and generous father. He tried his best to
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give his daughters whatever they wanted,
including two pet horses and video games.
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There wasn’t anything at the Rupp home to
indicate that Rudolf had packed up and left on
00:06:53
his own accord. His farm work was left incomplete
and he hadn’t tried to tie up any loose ends.
00:07:00
It didn’t seem likely that he’d
choose to up and leave without a word. A check of Rudolf’s finances revealed that the
Rupp family were living well beyond their means.
00:07:15
Rudolf had once owned several properties,
but with the farm failing to return a profit,
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each of these properties had since been
sold. In 1999, the Rupp’s farmhouse had been placed into foreclosure, and
visits from a bailiff were commonplace.
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To support his family, Rudolf had reluctantly
resorted to selling off his farmland.
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In the leadup to his disappearance, he’d sold a
plot of land for around one million deutschmarks,
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the equivalent to around 857,000
Australian dollars at the time. It was unclear what the money from the
property sale had been spent on, but it
00:07:55
didn’t appear to have helped the Rupp’s financial
situation. At the time of Rudolf’s disappearance,
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he owed roughly 882,000 deutschmarks, which
included 80,000 deutschmarks in income tax.
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Less than two weeks prior to his disappearance,
Rudolf had been summoned with an affidavit
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regarding unpaid debts. With the farm and rental
property only bringing in a meagre income,
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the only option Rudolf had left
was to sell more of his land. Then there was the issue of Rudolf’s
health. Rudolf had type two diabetes,
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the symptoms of which were exacerbated by
his unhealthy lifestyle. If he didn’t make
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some changes, doctors had warned Rudolf that
one of his legs would have to be amputated.
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Considerations led to the belief that
Rudolf might have taken his own life. Those who knew him denied this possibility. While
Rudolf was in a rough place financially, he felt
00:08:57
he had things under control. His diabetes didn’t
seem to bother him too much either. He’d never
00:09:05
shown any signs of depression or voiced a desire
to end things. Other guests who interacted with
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Rudolf at the BSV Neuburg on the night before he
disappeared said he’d seemed like his usual self.
00:09:20
There was no evidence, such as a suicide note
or the wrapping up of affairs, to support the
00:09:25
suicide theory either. Regardless, investigators
weren’t prepared to rule out that Rudolf had been
00:09:31
keeping some dark thoughts to himself and
made a rash decision in his drunken state.
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There was just one problem. If Rudolf
had gone away somewhere to kill himself, it didn’t make sense that his
Mercedes had vanished with him.
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The Rupp’s farm was situated within close
proximity to the Donau River, the second
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largest river in Europe. It could be reached by
car from the BSV Neuburg in less than 15 minutes.
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Other bodies of water such as Zeller Lake
and Irgertsheimer Pond were also less than
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10 kilometres from the BSV. A cursory search
of the waterways didn’t indicate any cars had
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driven over the banks. Police divers took to
the waters, but no sign of Rudolf Rupp emerged.
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As the months passed, search efforts intensified.
Authorities were advised to be on the lookout
00:10:30
for Rudolf’s Mercedes with the licence plate
ND-AE 265. Neuburg an der Donau was surrounded
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by lowland forests. Police helicopters
repeatedly scanned the woods, to no result.
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No confirmed sightings of Rudolf came
through nor did he touch his bank account,
00:10:51
making it less likely that the farmer
had up and left. But there was also no crime scene and no evidence of foul play.
Rudolf Rupp had disappeared into thin air.
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Intermittent searches of the Donau River
continued. By 2003, police had spent 23
00:11:17
days examining the waterways surrounding Neuburg.
No sign of the missing farmer or his car emerged.
00:11:25
In November that year, a public prosecutor was
assigned to reexamine the two year old cold case.
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If there had been an accident or suicide, the
prosecutor felt something would have surfaced
00:11:38
by now. Feeling “one hundred percent” certain that
Rudolf Rupp wasn’t in any body of water within a
00:11:45
five-kilometre radius of where he was last seen,
the prosecutor started considering a new theory.
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The mysterious disappearance of Rudolf Rupp had
become somewhat of an urban legend for locals of
00:11:58
Neuburg an der Donau. Just before he went missing,
Rudolf’s eldest daughter, 16-year-old Manuela,
00:12:06
had become engaged to a young man named
Matthias, who moved into the Rupp’s farmhouse.
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It was common knowledge that Rudolf and Matthias
didn’t get along. Like Rudolf, Matthias had a
00:12:19
proclivity for alcohol and could turn violent when
under the influence. According to a neighbour,
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Matthias had once showed up at her house drunk
and threatened to kill her son. Shortly before
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his disappearance, an enraged Rudolf had
apparently chased Matthias off his property.
00:12:39
Gossip spread around town that Ruldof’s wife,
daughters and future son-in-law could have reached
00:12:45
their breaking point. Tired of Rudolf drinking
their remaining money away and running the farm
00:12:51
into the ground, they could have hatched a plan to
get rid of him. Although investigators had caught
00:12:58
wind of these rumours early on, there was no
evidence to suggest there was any truth to them.
00:13:05
Upon reviewing all the evidence, the
public prosecutor wasn’t so sure. Without Rudolf around to work
on the farm, his wife Hermine
00:13:16
had been left with no other option but
to sell more of the family’s farmland. This was something that Rudolf had been
deeply opposed to. It raised some questions.
00:13:29
The prosecutor considered an angle that hadn’t
been explored during the initial missing persons
00:13:34
investigation. What if the family was lying when
they said Rudolf never came home that night?
00:13:45
At 6AM on Tuesday January 13 2004, a team
of investigators arrived at the Rupp’s farm
00:13:52
armed with a search warrant. Outside,
the property was in disarray. Rubbish, old furniture and pieces of household junk were
strewn about and several large dogs roamed around.
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The inside of the house was neglected and dirty,
with a terrible stench permeating the air.
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Hermine, Andrea, Manuela and
Matthias were all still sleeping. Officers shook them awake and ordered them
outside as a search of the house commenced.
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Investigators made their way
to the basement downstairs. The smell was terrible. There, they found
cages filled with chinchillas and ferrets.
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A neglected dog appeared to
be on the brink of death. Meanwhile, the residents
were taken for questioning.
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At this point, they were only being treated as
witnesses. The main aim for investigators was to
00:14:54
establish once and for all whether Rudolf returned
home in the early morning hours of October
00:14:59
13 2001. If they could clarify this detail,
they could figure out where to go from there.
00:15:08
The now 18-year-old Manuela Rupp firmly
denied that her father had ever come home.
00:15:15
Her mother Hermine also denied this,
but investigators weren’t convinced. They pressed Hermine and before long, she
admitted that her husband had indeed come
00:15:27
home from the BSV clubhouse that night.
According to Hermine, she and Rudolf were
00:15:33
standing at the top of the basement stairs
when a heated argument broke out between them.
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Hermine pushed Rudolf and he fell down the stairs.
The fall was fatal. Manuela’s fiancé Matthias
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helped Hermine carry Rudolf’s body outside
and into Rudolf’s Mercedes. Under the cover
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of darkness, they drove the car to the nearby
Irgertsheimer Pond and pushed it into the water.
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After a few days of questioning, Manuela Rupp
caved and corroborated the version of events
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provided by her mother, admitting that Hermine
had accidentally pushed Rudolf down the stairs.
00:16:16
Andrea Rupp was now 17-years-old. When questioned
by police, she said she didn’t know if her father
00:16:23
had come home that night. It was only when they
told her that her mother had confessed to killing
00:16:29
Rudolf that Andrea changed her story. It was a
watershed moment. Andrea admitted that Rudolf
00:16:38
had come home after drinking at the clubhouse.
But she added a significant detail. She claimed
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that her father had been sexually abusing
her for years. It happened again that night.
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Afterwards, a fight broke out between her parents
and her mother pushed Rudolf down the stairs.
00:17:01
Armed with these confessions, an extensive
forensic search was carried out at the
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Rupp’s farmhouse. According to Hermine, when
Rudolf landed at the bottom of the stairs,
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a pool of blood formed under his
body which she had cleaned up. Yet, the search of the farmhouse failed
to uncover a single trace of blood.
00:17:31
Manuela’s fiancé Matthias, whose surname
has been withheld from the public due to
00:17:36
Germany’s privacy laws, was now 20-years-old.
Matthias initially denied knowing anything about
00:17:43
Rudolf’s disappearance, but it only took him a
few hours to crack. He admitted that Hermine had
00:17:50
killed Rudolf and that he’d helped her dispose
of his body and car in the Irgertsheimer Pond.
00:17:56
However, Matthias made no mention of Rudolf being
pushed down the stairs. He said Hermine had beat
00:18:03
Rudolf to death with a club. Not only did this
contradict the statements from Rudolf’s wife and
00:18:10
daughters, it made the lack of blood spatter
in the Rupp farmhouse even more perplexing.
00:18:17
Despite the lack of forensic evidence,
the confessions couldn’t be ignored. Hermine, Manuela, Andrea and Matthias were
all charged with manslaughter and held in
00:18:28
custody as the prosecutor continued
building his case against them. One week after her original confession,
Hermine Rupp spoke to the investigators again.
00:18:40
This time, she withdrew her entire confession.
Hermine adamantly denied that Rudolf had ever come
00:18:48
home on the night he went missing, and maintained
that she had no idea what happened to him.
00:18:54
Two days later, Andrea also retracted her story
about her mother pushing Rudolf down the stairs.
00:19:01
According to Andrea, what really happened was
that Hermine and Matthias had beaten Rudolf to
00:19:08
death with a club. She later changed her story
again, saying it wasn’t a club, but a hammer.
00:19:17
Investigators weren’t sure what to believe.
Each confession contradicted the other.
00:19:23
The lack of blood at the property seemed hard to
believe given the level of violence described in
00:19:29
each variation of the story. The Rupp’s were taken
to their farmhouse to participate in a videotaped
00:19:36
reconstruction of the crime scene in the hopes
a clearer picture of the truth would emerge.
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On camera, Manuela made a sudden switch from her
original story. Instead of describing how her
00:19:49
mother had pushed her father down the stairs, she
claimed that her fiancé Matthias had beaten Rudolf
00:19:55
to death with a wooden club. At first, Manuela
said that Matthias was the sole perpetrator.
00:20:03
Later that day, she said her mother
had also participated in the beating. Using a police mannequin, Manuela demonstrated
the way Hermine had whacked Rudolf in the head
00:20:15
several times before Matthias took over. She
didn’t know how many times Rudolf was struck
00:20:21
overall, but one thing she was certain
of was that there was a lot of blood. Then, in mid-February, Manuela changed
her story yet again. She claimed that
00:20:34
her mother had nothing to do with the death of
her father, and that Matthias had acted alone.
00:20:41
After beating Rudolf to death, she said Matthias
cut up Rudolf’s corpse and fed it to their pet
00:20:47
dogs, which included Dobermans, a
Bull Terrier and a German Shepherd. It wasn’t long before Andrea also
submitted another version of events.
00:20:59
She maintained that her father had
come home and sexually abused her, but this time she added that Matthias found
out what was going on and came to her defence.
00:21:10
According to Andrea, Matthias threw Rudolf down
the stairs, killing him. He then disposed of both
00:21:18
Rudolf’s body and vehicle. A month later,
Andrea said this story wasn’t true either.
00:21:27
She said that Hermine and Matthias
had attacked Rudolf on the staircase, after which they’d cut his corpse
into pieces and fed it to the dogs.
00:21:40
Investigators struggled to make sense
of all the stories. Of the foursome, Matthias was the only one who stuck by his initial
version of events - that Hermine had beaten Rudolf
00:21:53
to death with a club, after which he’d helped push
Rudolf and his car into the Irgertsheimer Pond.
00:22:00
That was until three months later, when
Matthias admitted he’d been lying all along.
00:22:08
According to Matthias, when Rudolf returned
home in the early hours of October 13 2001,
00:22:15
he approached his future father-in-law
in the stairwell. Using a wooden club, Matthias hit Rudolf from behind and then
dragged his body down into the basement.
00:22:27
Matthias was sure Rudolf was dead, until he
saw his leg twitch. That’s when he grabbed a
00:22:34
hammer and repeatedly smashed it into Rudolf’s
temple. He only stopped when it became stuck.
00:22:42
From there, Matthias dragged
Rudolf onto a piece of timber. He used a hacksaw and a hand axe to sever
Rudolf’s arms and legs. He cut Rudolf’s body open,
00:22:55
removed his internal organs and used a margarine
container to scoop all of the blood into a bucket.
00:23:03
He wrapped the body parts in a garbage
bag and carried them out to the toolshed.
00:23:08
Matthias then boiled up a pot of water and
placed Rudolf’s head inside. One investigator
00:23:16
asked him why. Matthias responded: “Because I
thought it might fall apart easier to hack it.”
00:23:25
Once the skull was boiled, Matthias claimed he
smashed it into pieces and mixed it into the
00:23:31
manure pile on the property. The remaining
body parts were fed to the pet dogs.
00:23:38
Matthias told interviewing officers:
"[The truth] had to come out so that I could be free. Even now in the cell, I
can still see these images in front of me.”
00:23:49
Even when using the most advanced technology
available, investigators were still unable to
00:23:57
uncover any traces of blood or other forensic
evidence anywhere in the Rupp’s farmhouse.
00:24:04
Matthias provided an explanation for this. When
he fatally hit Rudolf in the head, he claimed
00:24:11
it didn’t create an open wound. Investigators
repeatedly asked him: “Did you see any blood?”
00:24:18
Matthias shook his head. The
investigators pressed on, asking: “Not at all?” Matthias shook his head again,
reiterating: “No, there was no blood.”
00:24:34
The manure from the farm had been sold to
a neighbouring farmer who had since used
00:24:39
it to spread over his fields. A search of the
farmers property turned up 150 pieces of bone.
00:24:46
None were determined to be human. Over the coming months, things only got more
complicated. Matthias claimed that both Hermine
00:24:57
and Manuela had encouraged the attack,
while also participating in the beating.
00:25:03
He then retracted this, saying he’d acted alone. Manuela later said she was the one who had killed
her father by beating his skull with a hammer.
00:25:13
She claimed Matthias then got rid of
Rudolf’s body by burning his remains. Manuela flip flopped between
several versions of events,
00:25:23
also stating that her father had been sexually
abusing her since she was 12-years-old.
00:25:31
By October 2004, ten months after being
taken into custody, the stories of all four of the accused finally aligned, but
not in the way investigators were hoping.
00:25:45
Hermine, Manuela, Andrea and Matthias
had all sought proper legal counsel. All four of them now claimed the police had
pressured them to submit false confessions.
00:25:58
Afraid of the repercussions, they complied.
Hermine, Manuela, Andrea and Matthias all denied
00:26:06
having anything to do with Rudolf Rupp’s death and
formally withdrew their confessions altogether.
00:26:16
The whole situation was a complete mess
for investigators. Although they didn’t
00:26:22
know which version of events was the right one,
they had no doubt that the group was responsible
00:26:27
for Rudolf’s death. Matthias had provided some
insight regarding the conflicting confessions.
00:26:36
He said that after killing Rudolf, the group sat
down and discussed what to do if the police came
00:26:41
poking around. They agreed to say that Rudolf
had never come home after drinking at the BSV.
00:26:49
If police didn’t believe them, they would say
his death had been the result of an accident.
00:26:55
It was possible that the varying confessions had become a confused combination of
the fabricated stories and the truth.
00:27:04
There was also the question of
motive. Rudolf had no life insurance, so no one in his family stood to
benefit financially from his death.
00:27:15
Piecing together the circumstantial evidence,
investigators ultimately deduced that things had
00:27:21
become unbearable in the Rupp household. Rudolf
was constantly drunk and unpleasant to be around.
00:27:28
The financial problems were causing a
great strain on Rudolf and Hermine’s marriage, which was exacerbated by Rudolf’s
hesitation to sell off more of his farmland.
00:27:39
For Rudolf’s daughters, they could no
longer endure the ongoing sexual abuse, which continued even after Matthias moved
in with them. The fact that Rudolf didn’t
00:27:51
get along with Matthias was the final nail
in the coffin. It didn’t matter that they
00:27:57
wouldn’t gain financially. The family
simply wanted Rudolf out of the picture. Prosecutors believed the most likely scenario
was that Rudolf’s family had waited for him
00:28:10
to return home from the BSV clubhouse
that October night. Once he was inside, Matthias ambushed Rudolf in the stairwell,
hitting him from behind with a wooden club.
00:28:22
Hermine, Manuela and Andrea stood nearby, cheering
Matthias on while also hurling abuse at Rudolf.
00:28:31
As Rudolf lay defenceless on the ground, Hermine
also hit him in the head, while Manuela and Andrea
00:28:38
kicked him in the body. Once they thought he was
dead, the group heaved his body into the basement,
00:28:44
only to realise he was still alive. Matthias
took care of this by hitting him in the temple
00:28:52
with a hammer. They left his body there until
the next morning, at which point Matthias and
00:28:58
Hermine dismembered his body and disposed of
his remains before reporting Rudolf missing.
00:29:06
This just left one question -
where was Rudolf’s Mercedes? Irgertsheimer Pond was a popular recreation
spot for swimming, kayaking and sunbathing.
00:29:18
Its murky waters had been explored during previous
searches for Rudolf, but nothing was found.
00:29:25
Matthias pinpointed the location where
he and Hermine claimed to have pushed the vehicle in, but the car wasn’t there either.
00:29:38
In another version of his story, Matthias said
that he’d disposed of Rudolf’s Mercedes in a
00:29:43
scrap yard. Although he didn’t say which
one, investigators suspected they knew.
00:29:51
Ludwig Hecht was a scrap dealer who lived near the
Rupp’s residence and was known to frequent their
00:29:57
farm. Hecht was well known to the police, with an
extensive criminal rap sheet dating back to the
00:30:03
1960s. He also owned a scrap pressing machine,
giving him the means to dispose of a vehicle.
00:30:12
Ludwig Hecht was taken in for questioning
but denied having anything to do with Rudolf
00:30:17
Rupp’s car. Detectives weren’t
convinced. Hecth had once been part of a notorious criminal gang and was
known to bear hatred towards the police.
00:30:29
Given the lack of forensic evidence found
at the Rupp property, the possibility that
00:30:34
Ludwig Hecht could have helped dispose
of Rudolf’s body was also considered. A search of Hecht’s scrapyard didn’t
reveal anything to tie him to the crime.
00:30:45
But police did find that Hecht had been
improperly storing a number of pollutants.
00:30:52
This was considered an environmental violation
and carried a hefty fine. Faced with this offence,
00:30:59
there were hopes that Hecht might talk
in exchange for some kind of deal. He was held in custody for four
months and interrogated multiple
00:31:09
times as the prosecution continued to
build their case against the accused. But Hecht never swayed from his story that he had
nothing to do with Rudolf Rupp's disappearance. He
00:31:22
was eventually released and charged with an 8,000
Euro fine in relation to the mis-stored chemicals.
00:31:31
In the lead up to the trial, Hermine Rupp and
her two daughters were presented with an option.
00:31:37
Confess to the truth and they would all serve
their sentences in the same prison. But they
00:31:43
didn’t budge from their story that they’d given
false confessions under pressure from the police.
00:31:53
The manslaughter trial commenced in April
2005. The prosecution case relied heavily
00:32:00
on the defendants' retracted confessions.
Videos were played of the accused as they
00:32:05
took police through a reenactment of their
alleged crimes. Despite the fact that each
00:32:11
story contradicted the other, the prosecution
linked them to form a consistent factual event.
00:32:18
A forensic pathologist provided an explanation
for the lack of blood spatter or DNA found at
00:32:24
the crime scene. They explained that both
the killing or Rudolf and the dismemberment
00:32:30
could have been relatively bloodless and that
“there probably wasn’t any spurting bleeding.”
00:32:36
Cleaning measures would have been adequate to
remove all traces. The pathologist believed that
00:32:43
the descriptions of the attack originally provided
by the accused sounded completely plausible,
00:32:48
albeit lacking in detail. There was just one thing
they weren’t sure about. Part of the prosecution’s
00:32:57
case was that Matthias had crushed Rupert’s bones
and buried them in the manure pile. According to
00:33:04
the pathologist, if this was true, at the very
least residue of the bones would have remained.
00:33:12
The defence described any statements made by
their clients as “pure imagination.” They blamed
00:33:19
the false confessions on the fact that their
clients were all of below average intelligence
00:33:24
and therefore didn’t have the mental capacity
to withstand the pressure of the interrogations.
00:33:30
The four accused had IQ’s ranging between 53 and
71. They were also initially questioned at length
00:33:38
without any legal representation, making them
quote: “at the mercy of the police officers.”
00:33:46
These preliminary interrogations hadn’t been
recorded, meaning there was no way to know
00:33:52
what was discussed during this crucial time
before the official interrogations commenced.
00:34:00
According to Matthias, it was only
after the police threatened him with violence that he made up the story
about dismembering Rudolf’s body.
00:34:09
Investigators testifying at the trial firmly
denied this. After 23 days of testimony, the court
00:34:17
agreed that the confessions were real and all four
of the accused were declared guilty. The judge
00:34:24
announced: “The terrible act was proven by the
many statements... All in all, it turns out there
00:34:31
was a clear and essentially consistent picture,
so that there can be no doubt as to the truth.
00:34:38
No one can seriously believe that the horrific
descriptions were made up by the accused."
00:34:46
Hermine and Matthias were each handed eight
year sentences. Manuela and Andrea, who were
00:34:53
being tried as juveniles, weren’t found guilty
of manslaughter, but of aiding and abetting.
00:34:59
They were sentenced to three and a half and two
and a half years in youth detention respectively.
00:35:07
Following the verdict, a report handed down by the
judge provided another possible explanation for
00:35:13
the lack of forensic evidence. The report said:
“The court is considering the possibility that
00:35:21
the defendant could have fed the remaining body
parts to the pigs. The Chamber is aware that pigs,
00:35:28
being omnivores, would also eat the rest
of the body parts including the bones.
00:35:34
It is quite conceivable that feeding the
pigs constitutes an even more terrifying
00:35:38
disposal of the corpse for the defendant
than throwing it in the manure heap, since the pigs are ultimately eaten by
humans as part of the human food chain.
00:35:49
There is a possibility that the pigs have
even been eaten by the family themselves.”
00:35:57
Four years passed, during which Manuela
and Andrea served their time and began to move on with their lives as they
waited for their mothers release.
00:36:08
In February 2009, a surveyor from a hydroelectric
power plant was conducting a routine inspection of
00:36:14
the Donau Reservoir in the municipality of
Bergheim. Using a sonar device to scan the
00:36:21
waters beneath his boat, he detected two objects.
Closer inspection revealed them both to be cars.
00:36:30
As was routine, the police were notified
so that the cars could be salvaged. On Tuesday March 10, a police diver took to
the cold waters and identified the first car
00:36:42
to be an old Opel Kadett. He
swam down for a second time. Through the murky waters, he recognised
the unmistakable shape of a three pointed
00:36:54
star - the Mercedes brand emblem. The diver
swam to the rear of the submerged vehicle.
00:37:04
The licence plate was covered in algae.
He scraped it off and got a closer look.
00:37:12
Though visibility was poor, he could
make out what it said: ND-AE 265. It was Rudolf Rupp’s car. And
behind the wheel was Rudolf’s body.
00:37:37
Word of the discovery quickly reached the
press. Camera crews and reporters watched
00:37:43
as search and rescue divers disappeared under
the water to attach a rope to the rear axle of
00:37:48
Rudolf’s Mercedes. On the river bank, a crane
started hauling the vehicle out of the water.
00:37:56
To the experienced rescue crews watching on,
it was clear that the crane was lifting the
00:38:01
car at too high of an angle. They tried
to alert the driver but it was too late.
00:38:08
With the front of the vehicle pointing
downwards, the dense mud that packed the
00:38:12
inside of the car shot forwards, causing
the windscreen to shatter and burst out.
00:38:18
Masses of mud rushed back into the
water, taking Rudolf’s body with it. After a frantic search, divers managed to
fish the corpse out of the murky waters.
00:38:31
With Rudolf’s body safe on shore,
investigators were stunned. The cold water of the Donau had preserved
his remains fairly well. While some parts had
00:38:42
been eaten by fish, Rudolf’s body was mostly
intact. And there were no obvious injuries.
00:38:51
An autopsy confirmed that Rudolf’s
skull was completely unharmed. There was no sign of bleeding in his brain or any
other head injury. Although the flesh on Rudolf’s
00:39:03
neck was no longer intact, his torso and spine
were completely unharmed. There was no sign of
00:39:10
internal bleeding or cardiac arrest. Toxicology
tests revealed no traces of poison or other drugs,
00:39:17
although it was possible that any toxic substances
had been washed out after years underwater.
00:39:24
Ultimately, it was unclear whether Rudolf had
still been alive when he entered the water and
00:39:30
the cause of his death couldn’t be determined. One
thing was certain. Rudolf hadn’t been beaten to
00:39:37
death, nor had he fatally fallen down the stairs.
He hadn’t been shot or stabbed. And he certainly
00:39:45
hadn’t been dismembered and fed to the farm
animals. In fact, not a single sign of violence
00:39:52
was found anywhere on Rudolf’s body.
THE MERCEDES Rudolf’s Mercedes was analysed to see if
it could shed some light on what happened.
00:40:02
Two keys were needed for Rudolf’s car - one to
unlock the doors and another to start the engine.
00:40:09
One set of keys were found in Rudolf’s
pocket, but there was no key in the ignition.
00:40:15
Furthermore, the engine showed no signs of
“water hammer,” which is what happens when
00:40:20
the drive unit sucks in water instead of air.
This led one motor vehicle expert to conclude
00:40:27
that the engine wasn’t running when the
vehicle was submerged into the river. However, this didn’t necessarily mean that
Rudolf’s car had been deliberately pushed in.
00:40:39
When the Mercedes was hauled from the water,
the gear stick was in the ‘park’ position.
00:40:44
If the engine was off and the car was in park, it would have been near impossible for
someone to push it over the embankment.
00:40:53
The car could have been towed directly into
the water from a trailer, with Rudolf’s already
00:40:58
deceased or unconscious body inside. But back in
April 2004, police divers had already searched the
00:41:07
exact spot near the Donau Reservoir where Rudolf’s
car was eventually found. This raised the question
00:41:13
of whether it could have been dumped or driven
into the water elsewhere and then washed further
00:41:18
downstream. The power plant worker who discovered
the car didn’t think so - the current wasn’t
00:41:26
strong enough. They deemed it much more likely
that the car had been missed by mere metres during
00:41:32
the original search, thus sitting undiscovered at
the bottom of the river for a further five years.
00:41:42
Three weeks after Rudolf’s body was found,
he was given a church burial in his hometown.
00:41:48
His wife and daughters were not among the
few family members who attended the funeral.
00:41:54
A wooden cross placed on his gravesite
said nothing about the events or assumed
00:41:59
an accurate timeline of his death,
stating simply: "Rudolf Rupp 1949-2009". The discovery of Rudolf’s body was the talk of the
town. Media gathered outside the Rupp’s vacant,
00:42:16
neglected farmhouse. Hermine Rupp’s
red Audi was still parked outside, while Hermine herself continued to serve
her sentence for her husband’s death.
00:42:27
Many assumed that she would be released and
that all four of the accused would be acquitted.
00:42:33
After all, the revoked confessions that had
formed a major part of the original verdict
00:42:39
had now been proven untrue and therefore
many considered them to be worthless. The discovery of Rudolf’s body also raised
suspicions about how the “confessions” came
00:42:51
about in the first place. If the confessions
weren’t accurate, then how had all four
00:42:57
defendants provided a somewhat consistent,
albeit muddled, false version of events?
00:43:04
Hermine’s defence lawyer Klaus
Wittman told Spiegel Online: "When a corpse fed to dogs suddenly sits
in a car in the Donau, this clearly refutes
00:43:16
the confessions of the accused and thus
the basis of the verdict in this case.”
00:43:23
Klaus believed that a retrial was essential,
saying: "Anything else would be a scandal.”
00:43:31
However, the regional judge stated that retrials
were only permitted when newly discovered facts
00:43:37
could lead to an acquittal. In this case, he felt
the original trial had proven beyond doubt that
00:43:44
Rudolf hadn’t died by accident or suicide,
but had been killed by the four accused.
00:43:51
It didn’t matter if they’d lied about the way
Rudolf was killed or disposed of, their motives
00:43:56
remained the same and their revoked confessions
still supported other elements of the crime.
00:44:03
While the autopsy report found no injuries
on Rudolf’s spine, the flesh on his neck was
00:44:10
no longer intact. According to the pathologist,
the possibility that Rudolf had been strangled,
00:44:16
suffocated or had his throat slit couldn’t be
ruled out. When Rudolf’s body was initially
00:44:23
discovered, he was kneeling in the driver’s
seat, facing towards the rear of the vehicle.
00:44:29
The pathologist believed this strange position
could be explained by rigour mortis having
00:44:35
already set in when Rudolf’s body was placed
in the car. He also said it was possible that
00:44:41
Rudolf’s body had been kept in a freezer and
then placed in the car in a frozen state.
00:44:48
Essentially, the judge ruled that it
didn’t matter how Rudolf had died, it had already been proven that Hermine, Matthias,
Manuela and Andrea were complicit in killing him.
00:45:01
Their request for a retrial was rejected. In November 2009, the now 54-year-old Hermine
Rupp was released from prison after serving
00:45:14
five of her eight year sentence. Her early
release had nothing to do with the recovery
00:45:20
of her husband’s body eight months earlier, but
was due to her being a first time offender who
00:45:25
was deemed to no longer pose a threat. Matthias
was released shortly after. Although this meant
00:45:34
that all four of the accused were now free, their
defence team continued to fight for a new trial.
00:45:40
It didn’t matter that they’d already served their
time - many believed they had been wrongfully
00:45:46
convicted. Without a retrial, justice wouldn’t
prevail and the stigma against them would remain.
00:45:54
As Hermine’s lawyer explained: "My client
doesn't want to be branded a murderer."
00:46:01
An appeal was submitted to the State Supreme
Court of Bavaria, where authorities disagreed
00:46:06
with the regional judges ruling that
it didn’t matter how Rudolf was killed. The request for a retrial was
granted. Regardless of the outcome,
00:46:17
the defendants couldn’t be sent back to prison,
but it gave them the chance to clear their names.
00:46:25
By the time the re-trial began in October 2010,
Matthias and Manuela were no longer a couple.
00:46:32
The youngest Rupp daughter, Andrea, was
heavily pregnant and unable to stand trial.
00:46:38
The decision was made to continue without her. The prosecution submitted that the manslaughter
conviction for Matthias and Hermine be upheld.
00:46:49
While the prosecutor admitted that
“not everything in this process went perfectly” and that the investigation had
clearly gone awry, he said there was no
00:46:59
doubt as to what happened to Rudolf Rupp in
the early morning hours of October 13 2001.
00:47:07
The motives presented in the original
trial remained unchanged - Rudolf Rupp was an abusive alcoholic and his
family wanted him out of the picture.
00:47:17
But the method of murder changed based on the
new forensic evidence. After returning home from
00:47:25
the BSV Neuberg, the prosecution presented that
Hermine pushed Rudolf down the stairs. As he lay
00:47:32
on the landing, Hermine and Matthias beat Rudolf
with a wooden plank in the neck area. As per the
00:47:40
pathologists report, it also couldn’t be ruled out
that they’d strangled Rudolf or slit his throat.
00:47:47
Matthias and Hermine managed to load Rudolf’s
unconscious body into his car and dispose of
00:47:53
it in the Donau River. The E230 model Mercedes
didn’t require the key to be in the ignition or
00:48:00
the brake to be applied for the gears to be
changed. The gear stick was also able to be
00:48:07
moved very easily during the rescue mission,
therefore it was suggested that the gear
00:48:12
could have moved to the ‘park’ position
after the car was already in the water.
00:48:18
Andrea and Manuela likely knew
that their father was attacked, but didn’t know whether he was dead
or alive. Regardless, all four of the
00:48:27
accused agreed to lie to detectives if they
came sniffing around. The prosecution agreed
00:48:34
that the daughters be acquitted, even if their
knowledge of the crime remained questionable.
00:48:43
The defence team argued that all four of the
accused be acquitted and compensated to the
00:48:48
sum of 100,000 euros combined for their years of
wrongful imprisonment. It wasn’t the defence’s
00:48:55
job to prove how Rudolf died, but simply to
prove that their clients weren't involved.
00:49:02
Based on the evidence, they believed that a
drunken accident or suicide couldn’t be ruled out.
00:49:09
When the car windscreen had smashed during the
rescue mission, any other evidence that might
00:49:14
have been mixed in with the mud had disappeared
into the river. Therefore, it was possible that
00:49:20
the key had been in the ignition but had been
ejected over time and was lost in the mud.
00:49:28
The only other items found in Rudolf’s Mercedes were his mother’s death certificate
and a letter from the tax office.
00:49:35
The defence team believed this added weight to
the theory that Rudolf had taken his own life.
00:49:42
Diaries owned by Andrea and Manuela had been taken
by police during the initial murder investigation.
00:49:49
There was nothing to indicate either of the girls
guilt in their fathers death. On the contrary,
00:49:55
in one entry, one of the Rupp daughters had
written: “Dad, we need you, please come back.”
00:50:05
Forensic experts concluded that blows to the
neck would have only caused a brief loss of
00:50:09
consciousness - a few minutes at most. One defence
lawyer said: "This would hardly allow, under the
00:50:18
specific circumstances, to drive a person to the
Donau in a car and drown in an unconscious state."
00:50:27
The defence also countered that if any weight
was going to be placed on the since retracted
00:50:32
confessions, at no point in any of those
statements did any of the accused mention
00:50:38
a beating to the neck region. Nor did they ever
mention the Donau River as a dumping ground.
00:50:45
As the defence pointed out, the crucial
point in the case was whether or not Rupert Rupp returned home on the night
in question, and this couldn’t be proven.
00:50:55
Therefore, an accident or
suicide could not be ruled out. The tactics used by police to elicit confessions
from the accused were heavily criticised.
00:51:08
The defence argued that the original investigators
were so convinced they had the right people,
00:51:13
they’d asked leading questions in order to
extract statements that supported their belief
00:51:18
of what had happened to Rudolf. In none of the
original interrogations did any of the accused
00:51:25
mention Rudolf falling down the stairs, or
being fed to the dogs. It was only after
00:51:30
investigators put these scenarios to them that
they began to say those events had happened.
00:51:37
The fact that the confessions had
come out in dribs and drabs and changed over time was proof to
the defence of their inaccuracy.
00:51:47
One defence lawyer said: "In my view, the only
conceivable way the accused could have come up
00:51:54
with these details is that the details were
made known by the interrogating officers.”
00:52:02
A police officer who had obtained Matthias’s first
confession was asked why a three hour in-depth
00:52:08
preliminary conversation hadn’t been recorded. The
officer explained that they’d just been getting
00:52:14
to know each other. It was only when Matthias
admitted that Rudolf Rupp had come home on the
00:52:20
night in question that the official interrogation
began and things were formally documented.
00:52:28
Interrogation records presented in court showed
just how much Manuela’s statements contradicted
00:52:34
themselves. Sometimes she said her mother beat
her father, other times she made no mention of it.
00:52:41
Manuela testified that she’d only provided these
details after the lead investigator provided her
00:52:48
with this version of events. This particular
investigator was excused from testifying on
00:52:55
the grounds that they were suffering from
psychological problems and that being put
00:53:00
under intense questioning could trigger severe
depressive symptoms. Later speaking about this
00:53:06
decision to the press, Manuela’s lawyer said: "Who
thought about the traumatization of my client?”
00:53:17
The accused mostly sat through the
proceedings without showing any emotion. That was until a former cellmate
of Hermine Rupp’s took the stand.
00:53:28
She alleged that Hermine had confided to
her in prison that Matthias had killed
00:53:33
Rudolf using a baseball bat. Hermine, who was
in ill health and required a walking frame,
00:53:40
got up and left the courtroom in a rage, saying:
“I’m going now, this is all too stupid for me.”
00:53:49
When she returned, she denied having ever
spoken to the woman, calling her a “lying pig.”
00:53:57
The former owner of the BSV Neuburg who had been
the last to see Rudolf Rupp alive testified that
00:54:04
after Rudolf went missing, Hermine came to the
clubhouse to pay off her husband's tab but didn’t
00:54:09
ask anything about his whereabouts. This was in
direct contrast to an earlier statement provided
00:54:17
by the owner, in which he said Hermine did ask
about Rudolf. Hermine launched forward in her
00:54:24
chair, wildly shaking her head and finger
at his inconsistency. For the prosecution,
00:54:30
the fact that Hermine was getting restless
was used as further proof of her guilt.
00:54:37
Ludwig Hecht, the scrap dealer who had been
accused of disposing of Rudolf’s Mercedes
00:54:42
also took the stand as a witness for the defence.
According to Hecht, the police had pressured him
00:54:48
to admit he was involved in the crime. When he
refused to sign a statement admitting to this,
00:54:55
Hecth alleged that one officer in the presence of
others held a gun to his head and threatened him,
00:55:01
saying: “This is about murder. We’re allowed to
do anything.’” When he still refused to sign it,
00:55:10
Hecht alleged that the lead investigator offered
him a deal: admit that Rudolf’s Mercedes had been
00:55:17
in his scrap yard, and the environmental
violation against him would be dropped.
00:55:24
The verdict was delivered in February 2011. Based
on the kneeling positioning of Rudolf Rupp’s body
00:55:31
when his Mercedes was found, presiding Judge
Theo Ziegler ruled out the possibility that
00:55:37
Rudolf had died by accident or suicide. The fact
that his car or wallet weren’t stolen were proof
00:55:45
that he hadn’t been the victim of a random
opportunistic attack, but a targeted homicide.
00:55:52
Judge Ziegler defended the investigators who
had obtained the revoked confessions and denied
00:55:58
the accusation that they’d used unethical
tactics or applied unnecessary pressure.
00:56:04
He believed the accused were pretending to be
less intelligent than they really were, and could
00:56:10
provide no explanation for why they had provided
false statements. Judge Ziegler concluded that
00:56:18
someone in the Rupp household had killed Rudolf,
he just couldn’t be sure exactly who or how.
00:56:25
Therefore, Ziegler said he had no choice
but to acquit each of the defendants. However, he denied their
requests for compensation.
00:56:36
As far as Judge Ziegler was concerned, Hermine,
Matthias, Manuela and Andrea had chosen to make
00:56:43
their false statements. Therefore, they only
had themselves to blame for their convictions.
00:56:50
For the defence team, the
verdict was only half a victory. Outside court, one of the lawyers
told the press: “We won, and we lost.”
00:57:07
In the wake of the verdict, scrap dealer
Ludwig Hecht was charged with making false
00:57:12
accusations against the police. At his trial,
a representative for the public prosecution
00:57:18
labelled Hecht “the scum of humanity” and
called for a prison sentence of 20 months.
00:57:25
The judge acquitted Hecht, citing reasonable doubt
as to whether he had fabricated the allegations.
00:57:34
Over the years, lawyers for Hermine,
Matthias, Manuela and Andrea continued to fight for financial compensation for
the time their clients spent in prison.
00:57:45
They argued that the accused didn’t invent the
false confessions that led to their convictions
00:57:50
alone, but under pressure from the interviewing
officers. Their appeals have all been denied.
00:58:00
Professor Guenter Koehnken is an expert on false
confessions. He examined the video footage of the
00:58:07
accused giving their statements to police for
a television special on the Spiegel Panorama
00:58:12
network and was shocked by what he saw. To
Professor Koehnken, it was obvious that the
00:58:19
video recordings were intermittently turned off,
at which point new information was given to the
00:58:24
accused during undocumented conversations.
When the camera started recording again,
00:58:30
the accused would then suddenly reveal
information that they’d previously been denying.
00:58:37
At no point in the footage did any of the
authorities address these discrepancies.
00:58:44
To understand how someone could give
a false confession, Professor Koehnken urged viewers to consider the whole picture and
not just the final outcome. He explained that in
00:58:56
this case there were a variety of factors at play,
including insecurities, low IQ’s and possible
00:59:02
mental illness, factors which were exacerbated by
isolation in custody and illegal questioning over
00:59:09
several weeks. Watching the footage, Professor
Koehnken stated: “I’m at a loss for words.”
00:59:20
Speaking to the same program, the public
prosecutor who had spearheaded the original
00:59:24
conviction against the four accused was asked how
he felt when Rudolf Rupp’s body was recovered from
00:59:30
the Donau River. The reporter asked: “Did you
think, oh damn it, now I’ve got a problem.”
00:59:38
The prosecutor responded: “No,
why would it be a problem?” The case gained massive media attention in Germany
not just because of the bizarre circumstances,
00:59:52
but because it shattered the longstanding belief
that the German legal system does not produce
00:59:57
wrongful convictions. After the retrial, the judge
from the original trial defended the original
01:00:04
verdict, saying: “I never want to sentence
anybody unjustified. But on the other hand
01:00:12
you also need to see that we are only human. And
therefore we can also be subject to human error.”
01:00:21
The truth about Rudolf Rupp’s
death remains a mystery.