page_title: Göhrde murders
section_title: First double murder
hierarchical_section_title: Göhrde murders / Murders / First double murder
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Göhrde-Morde: Forstweg zu den Jagen 147 und 138 (gegenüber dem Parkplatz nahe dem Forsthaus Röthen)
context_page_description: The Göhrde murders in the Göhrde State Forest in Lower Saxony were two double murders, which in the summer of 1989 caused a sensation throughout Western Germany and today are regarded as spectacular criminal cases. Within a few weeks, two couples in the same forest area of the Göhrde were murdered probably by the same perpetrator. The second double murder took place, while the Kriminalpolizei only a few hundred meters away secured traces of the first crime. The forest area was then avoided for a long time by walkers and excursionists for almost 30 years, and the cases remain unexplained.
  At the end of December 2017, the Lower Saxony Police announced that they had already determined that the cemetery gardener Kurt-Werner Wichmann, who had committed suicide in 1993, was a high-risk perpetrator, who was probably a serial killer with further murders. This was achieved with the result of a DNA test of two hairs. The investigators also suspect another previously unknown person to be related to the killings as accomplices.
context_section_description: On May 21, 1989, Ursula and Peter Reinold from Bergedorf drove to the Göhrde to go for a walk there. It is believed that the 45-year-old woman and her 51-year-old husband went to a glade in Hunt 147 to sunbathe or have a picnic. They were killed on the spot, but were not left on the crime scene. The culprit took his victims to a nearby depression and hid them there. The victims were undressed, although it is unclear if they were undressed before the murder or the murderer had undressed them himself. The offender then stole the victims' picnic basket and took the car keys. With their Honda Civic the culprit escaped from the Göhrde and left the car 300 meters away from the train station in Winsen an der Luhe, a small town in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. The couple had meanwhile been reported missing. Only seven weeks later, on July 12, 1989, three blueberry collectors discovered their bodies. They were significantly decomposed due to the high temperature at the time, mummified and largely skeletized.
  After the three blueberry collectors had discovered the two bodies, they went to the forester to let the police know. On the way, they met a brown-haired, well-built, about 40 years old man with a bag on his hand. The Kriminalpolizei assumes that this was the perpetrator, who sought exactly on this day and this time more victims in the Göhrde.
  The exact cause of death could not be clarified because of the condition of the two corpses, neither at the crime scene nor at the later autopsy. However, it was clear that was not suicide or an accident, and that a crime had occurred. Because of this, shooting, strangling or slaying were possible causes. The husband had an injury to his larynx. However, it could not be determined whether it was strangulation characteristics or injury from a foraging, trampling wild boar.
caption: Forest road from the parking lot to the hunts 147 and 138
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