Germany: Couple Sentenced to Life for Killing Newborn’s Mother and Grandmother

On Monday, February 10, 2025, a court in southern Germany sentenced a couple to life imprisonment for the murder of two Ukrainian women—a 27-year-old mother and her 51-year-old mother. The couple was arrested in March 2024, a week after the murders. Due to the severity of the crime, the Mannheim court ruled that they would not be eligible for parole until serving at least 15 years. According to prosecutors, the 45-year-old defendant infiltrated a Telegram group supporting Ukrainian refugees, where she met the pregnant victim who sought a translator for her daughter’s birth. After the baby girl was born, the couple invited the mother and grandmother over for dinner, drugged them, and proceeded to kill both women. The grandmother was drowned in a lake by the husband, while the mother was beaten to death near the Rhine River, with her body burned afterward. The newborn, only five weeks old when the suspects were arrested, was unharmed and taken into child protection services.