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  • Title: [Murder without a body or "just" an unusual case of child abuse?].
    Author: Görndt J, Püschel K.
    Journal: Arch Kriminol; 2010; 226(3-4):99-106. PubMed ID: 21121120.
    Abstract:
    A nine-year old boy was placed in a foster family--allegedly because of neglect after his mother had died in a car accident. Abnormal behaviour and the discovery of a photograph showing the boy naked from the waist down made the foster mother suspect sexual abuse. When she asked the boy to tell her the truth, the boy dictated a shocking story into her dictating machine. He described in detail how his mother had been killed and dismembered by her life partner in the bathtub with a saw before his eyes. Police investigations showed that the mother was not registered as deceased and that a suspicious neighbour had actually filed reports with the police months before because the man had given different versions on the alleged fatal accident of the mother. When the apartment was searched and evidence was collected, a bow saw with blood stains was found along with dental crowns in the bathtub drain. In spite of the boy's detailed statement where his mother's partner had allegedly disposed of her body parts she was never found. Four years later, a charge for manslaughter was brought against him. The unusual sentence--three years and 10 months' imprisonment for abuse of a person committed to his care-- was decisively influenced by the credibility assessment of the child's statement according to which the description given by the boy was based on a real event he had experienced.
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