Five people who mysteriously died after crossbow bolts pierced their bodies in southern Germany could be part of a medieval folklore cult, police have suggested.
Two women and a man were discovered with crossbow bolts stuck in them at a Bavarian bed and breakfast in Passau on May 11. Another two dead bodies were found just two days later at one of the women’s apartments in Wittingen, just over 400 miles northwest of Passau.
German authorities now suspect they may have died as part of a murder-suicide agreement promoted by a cult-like group devoted to medieval folklore.
Man in German crossbow deaths led ‘medieval cult’: media.https://t.co/HYpTfH7v6p pic.twitter.com/z4PckRiY0x
— Yahoo Singapore (@YahooSG) May 16, 2019
Passau Police are investigating the deaths as a case of “killing on demand or group suicide.”
“We have five dead, that much is clear. Everything else is in doubt,” Passau prosecutor Walter Feiler told RTL.
The mysterious case revolves around two of the deceased from May 11, Torsten Weiss, 53, and Farina Caspari, 30.
Police believe Caspari was the last to die when she turned the crossbow on herself and fired a bolt through her own neck. She had already fired several bolts at Weiss and partner Kerstin Enders, 33, who were found holding hands inside the hotel room.
Caspari’s body was found lying next to the bed.
The two other victims were Caspari’s girlfriend, a 35-year-old teacher, and a 19-year-old woman inside the couple’s apartment in Wittingen. Their causes of death are still unclear since the victims had been dead for several days and there were no crossbow bolts found.
German ‘crossbow murders’: 5 bodies foundhttps://t.co/9qRCaGVMeC pic.twitter.com/9OFrYRuEuz
— NewsFront in English (@ENnewsfront) May 15, 2019
Weiss is suspected of being the leader of the group and operated a medieval-themed store in Hachenburg selling weapons, Knights Templar flags, and that had a mannequin covered in flake blood on the counter. Local media reports describe his personality as dominating and that he enjoyed treating women like “slaves” through physical force and psychological manipulation.
“Investigators suspect they were all members of a kind of sex circle with a focus on the Middle Ages. Torsten W. may have been the guru of the group,” RTL reported.
Caspari, who worked as a sales manager in a bakery, is believed to have met Weiss and Enders through a jousting club run by Weiss’s store. It is also believed they stopped at the Passau hotel on the way back from a jousting tournament in Austria.
Three people found dead from crossbow wounds in a hotel room near the southern German city of Passau, authorities say. https://t.co/2whDMgve5T pic.twitter.com/9jrfMWUEB8
— ABC News (@ABC) May 14, 2019
German police investigating the deaths of three people killed by crossbow have found two more bodies in a flat occupied by one of the deceased https://t.co/gEAG3Fi2FU
— CNN International (@cnni) May 14, 2019
A couple interviewed by local media feared the 19-year-old found inside the Wittingen apartment may have been their daughter, Carina, who had fallen under Weiss’s spell years ago and ceased all contact with them.
The mother said that before her daughter cut them off she was “raving about Torsten, Torsten, Torsten.”
Landlord Alexander Kruger, who rented a farmhouse to Weiss, Caspari, her girlfriend, and the teenager, described Weiss as a bully who would order women about.
“His tone with them was strange, they were almost submissive. I had the impression that they are hardly allowed to talk to me,” Kruger told Bild newspaper. “His tone was so harsh, strikingly harsh, not the way you talk to anyone. It was in short, imperative sentences. Their reaction, the body language was submissive, holding their heads down. If I did not know better, I’d say they were really scared of him. He was the great master, he gave orders.”
There is not much information available on Enders and how she first met with Weiss. Documents obtained by local media show they lived together at the time they died and had already prepared wills, according to the Daily Mail.
Five medieval-obsessed enthusiasts dead in mystery German crossbow killings https://t.co/hEI9NrpdrV
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) May 15, 2019
The investigation continues.
