Boy, 11, ‘kills 10-year-old girl’ at German children’s home

An 11-year-old boy is suspected of involvement in the death of a 10-year-old girl at a children’s home in Germany, police said.

The girl was found dead in her room at a child and youth care institution in Wunsiedel, in the German region of Bavaria, on Tuesday.

Evidence collected at the crime scene “indicates the involvement of an 11-year-old boy” who resides in the same facility, local police and prosecutors said in a joint statement.

“Since the 11-year-old boy is below the age of criminal responsibility, he has been placed in a secure facility as a precaution.”

It is still unclear how the girl died, although a police spokesman told German media that she died a “violent” death.

The case comes with Germany still reeling from the murder of 12-year-old Luise Frisch, who was found dead last month in the western town of Freudenberg after suffering multiple stab wounds.

Two schoolgirls aged 12 and 13 have confessed to the murder.

Police and prosecutors declined to provide further details about the Wunsiedel case, but said the boy had not yet been questioned.

They added that they were working closely with local youth authorities.

Bavaria’s regional interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, praised the detectives for identifying a suspect so quickly.

‘Thanks to the careful and very dedicated investigation, a person involved in the crime could be identified in a relatively short time.

“What’s important now is to clarify the exact circumstances of this tragedy,” he said.

The child and youth care center in the small town of Wunsiedel, home to some 90 children and teenagers, said it was “deeply shocked” by the girl’s death.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the parents, the family, our children and our colleagues,” the statement read.

On its website, the institute describes itself as supporting “young people and their families who need help with their education.”

The investigation into the girl’s death will continue undisturbed throughout the Easter weekend, the police reported on Friday.

Less than a month ago, the town of Freudenberg, near Cologne, was rocked when Luise Frisch, 12, was found dead after disappearing after a playdate.

Her killers, named Luisa Halberstadt, 13, and Anna-Marie Hoffman, 12, stabbed their victim 32 times with a nail file before pushing her down a steep slope into nearby woods.

The classmates also pulled a plastic bag over Luise’s head before one shudderingly told the other to “hit her with a rock or she would lie next to her.”

The pair confessed to the crime but will avoid punishment as they are too young to bear criminal responsibility in Germany.

Police fear that Luise was alive before she was thrown off the embankment and died of her injuries and the sub-zero conditions that hit the area in early March.

An investigative source told MailOnline: ‘The act itself was appalling. Experienced officers who have been involved in many murder cases are shocked by the murder.

“Not only due to the age of the victim but also the age of the suspects – the murder weapon has yet to be found and while we initially thought it might be a knife, we now suspect it to be a nail file.”

Officers urged people not to share the identities of the suspects on social media in the aftermath of the attacks, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Photos of the girls with the word “killer” were circulated on several sites as outrage grows over the fact that both will escape justice for being under the age of 14 for criminal liability in Germany.

A petition demanding that the law be changed garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures.

Online death threats were also made against the girls and they and their families have been removed from their homes in the sleepy village of Freudenberg.

Police were forced to place patrol cars outside the suspects’ homes to discourage angry citizens from damaging the property and it is unlikely the families will ever be able to return.