This is the murdered German schoolgirl Luise Frisch appearing in a TikTok video with one of the classmates accused of killing her.
Luise, 12, was found stabbed multiple times in remote woods in a crime that has shocked Germany after her attackers were revealed to be the same age.
Initially, two girls, aged 12 and 13, had denied any involvement, but the pair eventually confessed after police found contradictions in their stories.
The video – which has been reposted thousands of times on social media – shows Luise and the 13-year-old girl wearing soft drinks and masks due to local Covid lockdown laws when it was filmed.
All three girls were in the same class at Esther Bejarano High School in Freudenberg near Cologne and, in another shocking twist, were described as “best friends.”
This is the murdered German schoolgirl Luise Frisch (right) seen in a TikTok video with one of the classmates accused of killing her
The 13-year-old suspect had posted a video on TikTok of herself dancing just hours after Luise’s tragic body was found
In another shocking development, it has also emerged that the 13-year-old posted a video to TikTok of herself dancing just hours after Luise’s tragic body was found on March 12 — a day after she was reported missing by her worried parents.
Due to the age of those involved, police and prosecutors have released few details and possible motives circulating include a TikTok spat, rivalry over a boy and revenge after Luise claimed she was bullied at school.
Both suspects – who come from the middle class – and their families have been transferred by the authorities and will not face trial because they are under the age of 14 in Germany for criminal liability.
The 12-year-old suspect’s father works at a local bank and is treasurer of the village band where he plays the bugle.
The family lives in a large two-story house on the outskirts of Freudenberg, and it was there that Luise had spent the night before she was murdered after a sleepover there.
The girl lived there with her parents, grandfather and two siblings and neighbors are shocked by the tragic events.
A note on the door asked the media to stay away and a police car drove past the house regularly.
A man, who runs a nearby cafe, told MailOnline: ‘We used to see each other [the 13-year-old girl] almost every day. She was just like any other girl her age, sweet and innocent, or so we thought.
Luise’s body was found on March 12 – a day after she was reported missing by her worried parents
Flowers and candles placed close to where Luise’s body was discovered last week
“She came to the cafe quite regularly because she would get food for herself and her grandfather because her parents were at work.
“It’s the age of everyone involved that has shocked everyone. They’re all just kids. Who knows what possessed them to do what they did, stabbing someone more than 30 times is horrific.”
The other girl, 13, lived with her parents a few minutes’ drive away. Her father is said to be a firefighter and is believed to have participated in the search for Luise after she was reported missing on March 11.
Neighbors there were stunned by the murder, one of them saying, ‘It’s just so hard to understand. They’re all just kids. We haven’t seen the family for days and we don’t know if they will return.’
While neither girl will face a criminal trial, it has emerged that they could be forced to pay damages to Luise’s heartbroken family as civil law takes effect at the age of seven “if they knew they were doing something harmful” .
Damages would be determined in a civil court and they would have to start paying off as soon as they got a job and it could take up to 30 years.
Both suspects have also received psychiatric help, as have their families, and they may also need to be given new identities.
Germany’s criminal responsibility law was passed in 1923 under the old Weimar Republic, but there have been calls for it to be revised after the assassination.
Luise Frisch’s body was found in a wooded area near the town of Freudenberg, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Christian Democratic union opposition member and lawyer Gunter Krings told MailOnline: “We urgently need to look at the age of criminal responsibility in Germany.
“There must be a proper debate and we call on the ruling government to look into it as soon as possible. There is an urgent need for research, the current law is currently 100 years old.
“Children have developed rapidly in recent decades and are more mature now than they were 50 years ago, let alone 100 years ago.
“This crime is particularly shocking given the age of the victim and the age of the suspects and children as young as 12 or 13 are mature enough to know they shouldn’t kill.”
But Germany’s Justice Minister, Marco Buschmann, told the popular newspaper Bild: “Crimes of this magnitude cannot go without consequences. Any debate about changes to the criminal law should be conducted coolly.
‘Children from the age of 14 are not prosecuted. However, our justice system already has the resources to respond to serious acts of violence committed by children under the age of 14.”