Volker Eckert

Case record: Volker Eckert

Volker Eckert (b. 1959) was a German truck driver and serial killer who confessed to the murders of six women, five of them prostitutes.

Eckert was accused of committing 19 murders in France, Spain and Germany between 1974 and 2006. After his arrest, investigators found tufts of hair and pictures of his victims subjected to various tortures in Eckert's truck and in his house.

Eckert was arrested on November 17, 2006, in Cologne, Germany. He was being kept in German police custody pending extradition to Spain.

Timeline

• November 17, 2006 — Eckert was arrested in Cologne, Germany.
• July 2, 2007 — Eckert was found dead in his cell in Bayreuth, Germany; he committed suicide.
• December 14, 2007 — Bavarian police said Eckert had clear links to three killings and evidence in four other cases.

Arrest and evidence

After the arrest, police reported that Eckert said: "I am so crazy that I am alleviated for the arrest".

German police said Eckert had at first admitted killing a Bulgarian woman, Miglena Petrova, in Spain earlier this month. German police also said he admitted to four further murders of prostitutes in Spain and France.

Spanish police identified Eckert as a suspect after his tanker truck was filmed leaving the spot in north-eastern Spain where the corpse of Miglena Petrova, described as a roadside prostitute, was found earlier that month. Spanish police described Eckert as "a professional truck driver who works on international routes".

Investigators found photographs allegedly found in his truck that featured Miglena Petrova's corpse, found abandoned beside a football pitch outside the north-eastern Spanish town of Hostalrich, and that of another victim killed in Spain. The second victim was an unidentified woman whose tattooed and naked corpse appeared in north-eastern Spain near the town of Sant Sadurni in March.

Tufts of hair and pictures of his victims subjected to various tortures were also found in Eckert's truck and in his house. Locks of hair and items of clothing taken as "trophies" from victims were also allegedly discovered. The photographs allegedly found in his truck were described as a macabre collection of Polaroid photos of murdered women.

Confessions and alleged pattern

German police said the murders Eckert admitted to stretched back at least to 1999, and that he had allegedly started taking photographs of victims in 2003.

Spanish police reported that a prostitute working on the same stretch of road had seen Miglena Petrova climb into a truck cab on the day she disappeared. The prostitute refused to go with her because the truck driver had said he wanted to tie them up before having sex.

Eckert was arrested when he reported for work at a haulage company near Cologne.

He was accused of killing at least five women in two countries, and a European arrest warrant issued by Spanish authorities was involved.

Specific admitted killings and locations

German police said Eckert admitted to murders that included:

• Miglena Petrova, a Bulgarian woman, found strangled to death in Hostalric.
• A murder in Macanet de la Selva in 2001 in the Girona province area.
• A murder in Sant Sadurní d’Osormo, in the Barcelona province area, in March last year.

German police said confessions came also for two murders in France—in Burgundy and Rheims.

The serial killer was also linked to the killing of a 14-year-old girl in Plauen, in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), in 1974. One report said Eckert had confessed to six killings starting with the 14-year-old girl when he was aged 15.

Other investigations and suspected cases

German police said they would be studying Eckert's possible involvement in three recent murder cases in his home town of Hof, in Bavaria.

Police were also investigating the murders of two Thai prostitutes and a Romanian woman in Hof in the past eight months.

Bavarian police later said Eckert had "clear links" to three killings, including those of:

• a Sierra Leonean prostitute in Troyes, northern France, in August 2002
• a Ghanaian call-girl in Rezzato, northern Italy, in September 2004

Bavarian police added: "In four other cases, three in the Czech Republic and one in France, there is evidence which leads us to believe Volker E was involved."

A statement revealed that "numerous requests" from forces across Europe to re-examine inconclusive dossiers had led to fresh evidence.

Death in custody and aftermath

Eckert was found dead in his cell in Germany on July 2, 2007. First investigations pointed to it being a suicide.

After his death, police found proofs that Eckert had killed nine women in Germany, France, Spain and Italy. There were furthermore strong indications that he killed another four women.

In December 2007, German police closed the file.

Other details

• A report said Eckert was 47 when arrested on November 17, 2006; another report stated he was 48.
• A reported police description said: "He has also admitted to four further murders of prostitutes in Spain and France."
• Spanish police said: "He is a professional truck driver who works on international routes."
• The international police task force set up to search for victims followed the discovery of Polaroid photos of murdered women in his truck.
• A satellite tracking system used by the haulage company he worked for allowed police to retrace his movements, and police were reported to allege placement of him at the scene of Miglena Petrova's killing.