The mayor of the municipality of Herdecke, in western Germany, is in critical condition after being stabbed at noon on Tuesday at home. The Social Democrat Iris Stalzer, 57, has just been chosen for the position in the September elections. Police rules out political motifs behind the aggression, and points to a family background. The two adoptive children of the victim have been arrested.
Stalzer lives with his adoptive son and daughter, 15 and 17, respectively, it was they who warned the police. Police, thinking that the authors could have escaped, initially deployed a search operation in the area ,. Then, the investigation focused on minors.
The mayor of this municipality of 22,000 inhabitants, in the federated state of North-Westfalia, received several stabs during the aggression. According to the children’s version, the attack would have happened in the street, and the mother, seriously injured, would have dragged home, where they found her.
Researchers doubt the adolescents’ story, according to the regional newspaper Westallgemeine ZeitunG, and believe that the aggression took place, where the agents found the injured woman. At night the victim regained consciousness, they report several local media.
“We have the first indications that the crime was committed inside the house,” a police spokesman, Tino Schäfer told the WDR chain. “The victim’s children are currently at the police station and are being questioned to clarify the facts,” he added.
They indicate that in summer there was already an episode of “domestic violence” in the same family, by threatening the mother to the mother with a knife.
The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, requested in a message on social networks that the “atrocious crime” is “resolved quickly.” “We fear for the life of Mayor Iris Stanzer and we expect complete recovery,” adds the chancellor. “Hopefully this frightful crime survives,” said Matthias Miersch, general secretary of the SPD, the victim’s party.
