The mother of the 14-year-old made the terrible discovery on Wednesday evening in the flat on the Plauener Street. At about 5.30 pm she found her daughter in the playroom with several knife-wounds.
For nearly 90 minutes, rescuers tried to revive the girl. However the “unknown perpetrator” had acted like a madman when he stabbed the young victim. Keira died before her mother’s eyes. The woman collapsed and has been cared for by a pastor ever since. A murder commission has taken over the investigation.
“The autopsy confirmed the suspicion that the adolescent has been the victim of a homicide,” said Martin Steltner, a spokesman for the prosecutor. “Further details can’t be released because of the ongoing investigation.”
For the investigators, the case is a “mystery”. A squad of a hundred police officers searched the area on Thursday morning looking for the murder weapon. They checked out every bin, under every car, in every shrubbery to no avail.
Murder investigators were knocking on doors everywhere in the neighbourhood, showing a photo of the deceased. The officials had hoped to get information about the contacts and the last place she was seen.
But after looking at her cell phone calls, the police already have a suspect in mind. Investigators assume that the perpetrator and the victim “knew each other” but the police refused to release details of the person in question.
The police say they assume it was a relationship crime. A neighbour reported that he had heard a fight in the evening and loud door-banging. “It might lead to an arrest soon,” said one investigator, suggesting that the crime was not so mysterious after all.
According to information from neighbours, the 14-year-old lived in an apartment alone with her mother and a small dog, a Jack Russel. Keira was a passionate skater at the Berlin TSC sports club. She regularly trained in the nearby indoor sports stadium.
Because there have been no witnesses so far, it is quite possible that the police will go public with a call for witnesses.