Austrian kills family, relatives over money problems

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080514/world/austria_crime_murder

Wed May 14, 12:21 PM

Austrian kills family, relatives over money problems

VIENNA (AFP) - An Austrian man has confessed to hacking his wife, daughter, parents and father-in-law to death with an axe because he had money problems, police said Wednesday.

The 39-year-old man, identified only as Reinhard S. by police at a news conference here, turned himself in in the early hours of Wednesday, saying: "The bodies of my dead wife and child are lying in my flat."

When police entered the suspect's flat in the well-to-do area of Hietzing in Vienna, they found the body of his 42-year-old wife, Barbara, in the bathroom, and his seven-year-old daughter Natalie, in a walk-in closet.

Their bodies were partially covered with sheets.

The killing spree did not stop there, however, and Reinhard S. then drove to Ansfelden, 180 kilometres (112 miles) west of Vienna, where he first axed to death his 69-year-old mother, Gabriela, and then his 72-year-old father, Engelbert.

Finally, the suspect drove a few kilometres north to the city of Linz, where he murdered his 80-year-old father in law, Heinrich R., investigator Thomas Stecher told the news conference.

The gruesome case comes as Austria is still grappling with another horrific crime that came to light two weeks ago when it was revealed that a 73-year-old man had held his daughter as a sex slave for 24 years, repeatedly raping her and forcing her to bear seven children from that abuse.

After committing the murders, Reinhard S. "drove around a bit". And when he unsuccessfully tried to hang himself, he decided to hand himself over to police at around 3:00 am (0100 GMT) on Wednesday.

Police found the axe in a rucksack behind the backseat of his car.

As a motive, Reinhard S. said he had lost a great deal of money in an investment that went sour and wanted to spare his family the shame.

He claimed to have borrowed the six-figure sum from a relative.

Police found notes in which Reinhard S. apologised for his actions next to the bodies of his parents and his father-in-law, but no such letters were found next to his wife and daughter, Stecher said.

The suspect, who gave his profession as a freelance public relations consultant and whose wife had worked in the Austrian finance ministry in Vienna, was described as "calm" and "composed", showing no emotion in initially questioning.

Criminologists were still examining the flat in Hietzing in an attempt to reconstruct the time of the murders, with the first two believed to have taken place at around 7:30 am (0530 GMT) and the others at around 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Tuesday.

Reinhard S. was under constant surveillance in custody to prevent any further suicide attempt.