A German court on Monday convicted an American man of raping and murdering a woman and attempting to murder her companion near the Neuschwanstein Castle, one of the country’s most famous tourist destinations.
A nearby bridge known for its panoramic views of the fairy-tale castle became a crime scene in June when the 31-year-old man attacked two young American women, who had been on a trip to Europe after their college graduation.
In imposing a life sentence, the court established the “particular gravity of the guilt,” a spokesman for the court said, adding that the man was charged with murder and rape resulting in the death in relation to the first victim, and attempted murder and grievous bodily harm in relation to the second. This means that the defendant will not be eligible for parole after the customary 15 years, though possibly at a later date.
(In Germany, a life sentence is not for a specific time period. A convicted person is usually allowed to apply for parole after 15 years and then, if rejected, to reapply every two years.)
Following privacy laws, German authorities did not name the defendant or the women, but family and friends identified the victims as 21-year-old Eva Liu, who died, and Kelsey Chang, 22. The two friends had recently graduated from the University of Illinois.
According to the police, the two friends did not know the attacker, but had met him that day by the Pöllat Bridge, which looks out onto Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria, near the Austrian border. The man persuaded the women to join him on a little-used trail leading into the forest, toward picturesque cliffs surrounding the castle.
He then attacked Ms. Liu and started to choke her. Ms. Chang attempted to fend off the attacker, but was quickly overcome by the man and pushed into the Pöllat Gorge below, falling some 165 feet, according to the German news agency, DPA, which was present at the trial.
The man then strangled Ms. Liu with a belt and raped her. He filmed and photographed the assault, which the judge overseeing the trial said was probably intended as a “trophy” but became important incriminating evidence in the case.
The assailant then pushed the woman down the gorge after her friend. “He disposed of her like a bag of garbage,” DPA quoted said the judge as saying in court.
A helicopter rescue mission later retrieved both women and took them to the hospital, but only Ms. Chang survived.
The judge also told the court that the women may have specifically been targeted because of their Asian heritage, according to DPA. He said the defendant apparently had a preference for Asian women, referring to pornographic films police found in his possession.
A spokesman for the court said that the defendant would have one week to appeal the decision.
Only if the judgment is made final, he said, would it be decided whether the defendant should be extradited to the United States to serve his sentence or remain in Germany.
