Detlev Guenzel

Timeline

• November 4, 2013 — Detlev Günzel collected Wojciech Stempniewicz and drove him to his bed and breakfast; prosecutors said Günzel strangled him using a rope tied to a pulley and then chopped the corpse into small pieces.
• November 11, 2013 — A colleague reported Wojciech Stempniewicz missing.
• November 29, 2013 — Police arrested a 55-year-old police officer identified as Detlev G on suspicion of murder after body parts were found; investigators said he led them to buried remains.
• April 1, 2015 — Detlev Günzel was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison; he had been found guilty of murder and disturbing the peace of the dead.
• December 13, 2016 — Following a re-trial, a regional court in Dresden convicted Detlev Günzel again and sentenced him to eight years and seven months in prison.
• Early November 2016 — A new trial began.
• 2013 — The killing of Wojciech Stempniewicz occurred; he was killed and dismembered at a bed-and-breakfast run by Günzel.
• October 2013 — Günzel and Stempniewicz met online in October 2013 and later arranged a fatal date.
• January 2014 — The case involved a link in which Günzel was arrested at police headquarters where he worked as a handwriting specialist (described as “early in 2014”).
• August 2014 — Günzel went on trial in August for killing Stempniewicz at his home.

Background

Detlev Günzel was a former police officer and a police forensic specialist. He had served in the police for 30 years and worked as a handwriting specialist.

Wojciech Stempniewicz was Polish-born. He was 59 when he was killed and dismembered. He lived in Hanover and ran a trucking logistics business specialising in transporting and storing goods from eastern Europe. He was educated at Gdansk University and had lived in Germany for 20 years. He used online names including “LongpigHeszla.” He was described by neighbours as affable, warm-hearted and courteous, and he had a death wish.

Detlev Günzel met Stempniewicz on a website for slaughter and cannibalism fantasies that described itself as the “#1 site for exotic meat,” with more than 3,000 registered members. Günzel called himself “Caligula 31.”

Günzel and Stempniewicz arranged contact and a fatal date after extensive contact online and by telephone. Their emails bore the title “Schlachtfest,” described as the German word for a country feast after the slaughter of a pig. They maintained “very intense contact by chat, by mail, by SMS but also by telephone” after first becoming acquainted in early October.

A Russian woman identified only as Svetlana was Stempniewicz’s fiancee; she called police when her lover did not return home again. Stempniewicz’s girlfriend said they had made wedding plans weeks before he was killed and believed he had been kidnapped in Dresden by Günzel. The girlfriend said Stempniewicz sent a message to Günzel saying: “Kill me and eat me up .” She also said: “He never had a single fantasy about death.”

The offence

Detlev Günzel strangled Wojciech Stempniewicz and then chopped the body into small pieces in an abattoir/slaughter chamber he built in his cellar, before burying the pieces in his garden. Prosecutors said Günzel strangled Stempniewicz using a rope tied to a pulley.

Police said there was no evidence that Günzel ate any part of his victim. The court and commentators also noted that body parts were missing: the victim’s penis and one testicle were never found, but the rest of the dismembered corpse was discovered in flowerbeds in the garden. Investigators were unable to definitively determine the cause of death due to the state of the corpse.

Günzel’s defence argued that Stempniewicz wanted to die and had already hanged himself in Günzel’s custom-designed “S&M studio” before Günzel took a knife and an electric saw to the gagged-and-bound man.

A 50-minute video starring Günzel was played during the trial. In the video, he was covered in blood and mutilating the corpse; pop music played while he dismembered the body. He was heard murmuring: “I never thought I would sink so low.” The defendant reportedly broke down when the footage was shown and told presiding judge Birgit Wiegand that he had made a mistake but was not a murderer.

The prosecution said the victim wanted to be murdered and then eaten “to fulfill his sexual desires.” The prosecution sought a life sentence in the re-trial. The prosecution also said Günzel filmed himself cutting up the body with an electric saw and later to get sexual stimulation by watching the video he made.

Investigation

After Wojciech Stempniewicz was reported missing by his business partner, investigators found a trail of electronic communication that led them to Detlev G. Investigators said the two men were not believed to have met prior to the fatal date.

Dresden police chief Dieter Kroll said the case showed “how people with the most gruesome fantasies can get together on the internet and live out their perversions in an ever starker form”. He added: “Ninety-nine per cent of those involved satisfied their desires by just exchanging information.”

Authorities said body parts of the victim were missing and it was possible that cannibalism may have taken place. Police said they were checking whether any body parts were missing or were eaten.

Detlev Günzel gave a partial confession and led investigators to body parts buried on his property. Police started looking into the case when Stempniewicz was reported missing on November 11, and witnesses told officers that the missing man had fantasised about being killed and eaten “since his youth.” Police said the victim was killed with a knife shortly after the men met at Dresden’s main railway station on 4 November.

Maik Mainda said: “I can’t give any conclusive information yet about the actual motivation of the suspect for killing his victim. We are investigating in all directions.” Investigator Maik Mainda also said: “The victim and the suspected killer maintained ‘very intense contact by chat, by mail, by SMS but also by telephone’ after first becoming acquainted in early October.”

Arrest

Police in Dresden arrested a 55-year-old police officer identified as Detlev G on suspicion of murder after the body of another man was found in the Erz mountains in eastern Germany. Investigators said the two men had met via an internet site for cannibalism fetishists. The suspect denied eating body parts and said he killed the man at his request.

Detlev G was arrested at the police HQ where he worked. He worked for Saxony’s State Office of Criminal Investigation in the forensics department, and German media reported that he was an expert in handwriting analysis.

At the time of arrest, investigators said the victim was killed and dismembered and that body parts were buried on a piece of land in the mountainous region belonging to the alleged killer.

Trial

Detlev Günzel went on trial in August (year not specified in the record provided) accused of murdering and cutting up Stempniewicz at his home, a bed-and-breakfast in the Erz mountains near the border with the Czech Republic. He was accused of cutting the body into small pieces and burying them in his garden, while making a home video.

Prosecutors could not confirm that Günzel had actually eaten the victim, but some body parts were never found. Investigators said they could not definitively determine the cause of death due to the poor condition of the corpse.

The defence argued that Stempniewicz had a death wish and had already hanged himself in Günzel’s “S&M studio” before Günzel took a knife, then an electric saw, to the gagged-and-bound man. Investigators testified in the first trial that they could not definitively determine the cause of death due to the state of the corpse.

Günzel initially admitted to detectives that he killed the victim by cutting his throat, but later retracted his confession.

During the new hearings in Dresden, Günzel told the court: “I am really sorry, I am partially responsible, but I am not a murderer.”

Sentencing

On April 1, 2015, Detlev Günzel was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison. Presiding judge Birgit Wiegand said: “He was found guilty of murder and disturbing the peace of the dead.” State attorneys had sought 10 and a half years in prison, and lawyers representing the family had requested a 15-year sentence.

In the re-trial, following a regional court in Dresden’s agreement with the initial verdict not to impose the maximum 15-year sentence because the victim had a death wish, the court sentenced Günzel to eight years and seven months.

Günzel’s imprisonment term was extended by a month following the re-trial outcome.

Appeals

The Federal Court of Justice overturned the first verdict which it deemed too lenient for a murder conviction. The re-trial was ordered after the defence claim that the victim committed suicide was never properly examined, and the rope which Stempniewicz was found hung from was never properly examined. The chairman of the Constitutional Court Senate said: “The cards have been completely reshuffled.” The record also said that it was impossible to predict the outcome of the new trial, which could see a more severe life sentence or a not guilty verdict.

The verdict following the re-trial was subject to appeal.

Outcome

On December 13, 2016, Detlev Günzel was convicted again in a re-trial for killing and dismembering Wojciech Stempniewicz and was sentenced to eight years and seven months in prison.

The record stated there was no evidence that he ate any part of his victim.

Aftermath

Body parts were buried in the garden of Günzel’s bed-and-breakfast. Investigators said Günzel showed them where the pieces were buried after arrest, but the victim’s penis had never been found.

Investigators and police described the case as having echoes of the 2001 murder of Bernd Juergen Brandes by Armin Meiwes in Rotenburg, where Meiwes was serving life imprisonment after killing and eating parts of his victim.

Günzel and Stempniewicz’s online interaction included an exchange in November 2012 in which a user calling himself “Butcher755” asked about a contraption designed to winch-up the body after being killed; the message included: “Can you describe a little more the room and your equipment? Did you check the load-bearing capacity of the rods? Will it withstand my weight?” The record said the inquiry was on the “Zambian Meat” website, described as the same cyberspace forum where Armin Meiwes found his willing prey back in 2001.