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New details emerge in Bavarian crossbow death mystery

There are still more questions than answers after three people were found dead in a Bavarian hotel from crossbow injuries, and two others were found dead in an apartment in Lower Saxony.

New details emerge in Bavarian crossbow death mystery
The hotel in Passau where the three bodies were found. Photo: DPA

Autopsy results released on Tuesday have shed some light on what happened in the room of a quiet hotel in Passau, near the Austrian border, on Sunday. 

On Saturday, hotel staff discovered the three dead German nationals in their room around noon alongside two crossbows.

A third crossbow was later found packed inside a bag, police said. The three were a 33-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man from Rhineland-Palatinate state and a 30-year-old woman from Lower Saxony. 

It has also emerged that two wills were found in the room. 

READ MORE: Two more bodies found after mystery crossbow deaths in Bavarian hotel

The initial autopsy results show that the three died through targeted shots, Spiegel reported on Tuesday. 

The 33-year-old woman and 53-year-old man, who were found dead on the bed, were each killed by a shot to the heart.

The 30-year-old woman, who was found lying on the floor near the bed, was killed by a shot to the neck.

Further shots had been fired at the couple on the bed, but investigators said those came after the fatal shot to the heart.

None of the three had shown signs that they were forcibly attacked or that they had tried to defend themselves.

In addition, two wills written by the pair found on the bed were found in the hotel room, said the spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Passau. 

The exact circumstances of death remain unclear. Investigators are trying to establish whether the women and men were under the influence of medication, alcohol or other drugs.

There are no indications that other people might have been involved in the incident, said the spokesman. The investigation so far indicates that the 30-year-old first shot the two on the bed, and then herself.

'Strange group'

The two women and men had arrived Friday and had all checked in without luggage.

They only returned to their cars later, after the reception was closed, to get the bags containing the crossbows.

One of the women had booked the triple room for 85 euros a night, without breakfast, for three nights.

“It was a strange group,” a guest recalled, according to the newspaper Bild, saying that the bearded man wore a suit while the women were dressed in black.

They had all wished a “good evening”, taken glasses of soft drink and water, and then disappeared into the second-floor room as rain fell outside.

Two women found dead

On Monday, two days after the hotel discovery, investigators found two more bodies in the 30-year-old woman's apartment in Wittingen, Lower Saxony.

Forensic teams at the site of the apartment in Wittingen, Lower Saxony, where two women were found. Photo: DPA

According to the police, neither crossbows nor arrows were found on the bodies of the two women there. One of the two women is said to have been the partner of the 30-year-old woman who died in Passau.

Police are trying to piece together what happened, how long the women had been dead and how these deaths are linked to the hotel incident.

Crossbows available to over-18s

According to the German Shooting and Archery Association (DSB), 3000  people of about 1.35 million shooter association members in Germany use crossbows.

Anyone over the age of 18 can buy a crossbow according to German law.

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PROTESTS

Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

Riot police clashed with demonstrators in the north-western French city of Rennes on Thursday in the latest rally against the rise of the far-right ahead of a national election this month.

Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

The rally ended after dozens of young demonstrators threw bottles and other projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas.

The regional prefecture said seven arrests were made among about 80 people who took positions in front of the march through the city centre.

The rally was called by unions opposed to Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party (RN), which is tipped to make major gains in France’s looming legislative elections. The first round of voting is on June 30.

“We express our absolute opposition to reactionary, racist and anti-Semitic ideas and to those who carry them. There is historically a blood division between them and us,” Fabrice Le Restif, regional head of the FO union, one of the organisers of the rally, told AFP.

Political tensions have been heightened by the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb, for which two 13-year-old boys have been charged. The RN has been among political parties to condemn the assault.

Several hundred people protested against anti-Semitism and ‘rape culture’ in Paris in the latest reaction.

Dominique Sopo, president of anti-racist group SOS Racisme, said it was “an anti-Semitic crime that chills our blood”.

Hundreds had already protested on Wednesday in Paris and Lyon amid widespread outrage over the assault.

The girl told police three boys aged between 12 and 13 approached her in a park near her home in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie on Saturday, police sources said.

She was dragged into a shed where the suspects beat and raped her, “while uttering death threats and anti-Semitic remarks”, one police source told AFP.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country outside Israel and the United States.

At Thursday’s protest, Arie Alimi, a lawyer known for tackling police brutality and vice-president of the French Human Rights League, said voters had to prevent the far-right from seizing power and “installing a racist, anti-Semitic and sexist policy”.

But he also said he was sad to hear, “anti-Semitic remarks from a part of those who say they are on the left”.

President Emmanuel Macron called the elections after the far-right thrashed his centrist alliance in European Union polls. The far-right and left-wing groups have accused each other of being anti-Semitic.

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