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A 23-year-old woman allegedly tracked down her lookalike on social media and murdered her in a bid to fake her own death.
The suspect, identified by police as Shahraban K, is accused of stabbing Algerian beauty blogger Khadidja O 50 times in the German city of Ingolstadt, her face completely disfigured from the number of stab wounds.
Shahraban K, who is also a beauty blogger, then allegedly dumped Khadidja’s body in her Mercedes in a ploy to make it look like she was the one who had been murdered in August last year, prosecutors now believe.
German police officers had initially identified the body, located in the parked Mercedes, as Shahraban K, a beautician of Iraqi descent.
But suspicions about the body’s identity rose following an autopsy and the victim has since been identified Khadidja, who is also 23 and has the same dark hair and complexion as Shahraban K.
The suspect, identified by police as Shahraban K (pictured), is accused of stabbing Algerian beauty blogger Khadidja O 50 times in the German city of Ingolstadt, her face completely disfigured from the number of stab wounds
Algerian beauty blogger Khadidja O (pictured) was stabbed 50 times in the German city of Ingolstadt, her face completely disfigured from the number of stab wounds
Now, prosecutors believe that Shahraban K murdered Khadidja, from the city of Heilbronn, in an attempt to fake her own death and go into hiding because of a ‘family dispute’.
The 23-year-old is suspected of setting up fake Instagram accounts to try and meet other women resembling her – and Khadidja fell into her trap.
Shahraban K began speaking to Khadidja online and allegedly offered her a set of beauty products.
The suspect and her boyfriend, named as Sheqir K, 24, then allegedly picked the unsuspecting Khadidja and drove her to a forest in Ingolstadt and stabbed the victim 50 times.
Shahraban K allegedly made a point to disfigure Khadidja’s face with the knife in a rouse to make it difficult for investigators and her family to identify the victim.
Shahraban K had told her parents she was going to Ingolstadt to meet her ex-husband but when she didn’t return to their Munich home, they went out searching and they found what they believed to be their daughter’s body in the back of her Mercedes.
But police later identified the body as Khadidja O and nvestigators were perplexed as to why the victim looked so like Shahraban, who owned the car.
But suspicions about the body’s identity rose following an autopsy and the victim has since been identified Khadidja (pictured), who is also 23 and has the same dark hair and complexion as Shahraban K
But investigators have now looked at Shahraban K’s social media and have found that she had been speaking to dozens of women who looked like her in the week before the murder.
Veronika Grieser, an Ingolstadt prosecutor, told the Bild newspaper: ‘It has been confirmed that the accused had contacted several women via Instagram before the act who seemed to look similar to her.
‘It can be assumed that the suspect wanted to go into hiding, due to internal disputes with her family, and fake her own death.’
A police spokesman said the killing had been carried out for ‘base motives’.
The spokesman said: ‘During the return journey, the victim was lured out of the vehicle as planned under a pretext and killed in a wooded area with a large number of stabs in the body.
‘The accused then continued their journey to Ingolstadt, where the body was found on the evening of Aug 16th. It was found lying in the vehicle.’
Another police spokesperson told the German newspaper: ‘The murder weapon has still not been found but the burden of proof is overwhelming.
‘The victim was killed with more than 50 stab wounds and her face was badly injured. That was brutal in the extreme.
‘It was an extraordinary case that required all the investigators’ skills. We don’t have a case like this every day, especially with such a spectacular twist. On the day we found the body, we did not expect it to develop like this.’
Shahraban K and Sheqir K were arrested on Friday and they face life in prison if convicted of murder.