Two girls, aged 12 and 13, have confessed to stabbing to death a 12-year-old friend in a small town in Germany. The tragic conclusion to the thriller of the disappearance of 12-year-old Louise is shocking the German public today. The case, which was revealed by police and prosecutors during a press conference, is unprecedented in Germany’s recent history and rare on a European scale.

Little Louise has been missing since she left the home of a friend she had visited late Saturday afternoon on the outskirts of Freudenberg, a town of 17,000 in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The parents notified the police three hours after their daughter went missing.

Louise’s lifeless body was found by police on Sunday in a forest a few kilometers away from the family’s home.

Koblenz prosecutor Mario Manweiler said her death was due to uncontrollable bleeding caused by multiple stab wounds. No traces of sexual assault were found, he added.

The two girls who were considered suspects “gave information about the case and eventually confessed” to their crime, said Florian Locker, Koblenz police chief.

The motive for the murder and the weapon of the crime are being sought

The two girls (whose identities have not been released) and Louise knew each other, prosecutor Manweiler said, without elaborating.

The motive for the murder remains unclear. “What could have been the motive for a child? It may seem completely incomprehensible to an adult,” said Koblenz’s prosecutor.

The 12-year-old and 13-year-old who confessed to Louise’s murder had not previously concerned the police. Because they have not reached the age of 14 they cannot be prosecuted, and were handed over to a juvenile welfare service.

The crime weapon has not yet been found, according to police.

The prosecutor and the police representatives were shocked

Apparently shocked by the discovery of the murder, the officials who gave the press conference appeared.

“After 40 years in the police force, there are still events that leave us speechless,” said Koblenz Police Deputy Chief Juergen Suss.

“The act itself is very rare and upsets us,” the prosecutor added.

The head of the regional government of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wurst, also did not hide his upset. “It is hard to even imagine (…) that children are capable of such acts,” he said at the press conference. But he admitted that the number of crimes involving teenagers or children under the age of 14 had been “increasing in recent years” and called for preventive measures.

Few such crimes have occurred in recent years in Europe. In 1993 in Liverpool, England, 10-year-old John Venables and Robert Thomson kidnapped, tortured and eventually killed just two-year-old James Bulger. The boy’s lifeless body was found two days later near a railway line.

In France, the murder of 14-year-old Alice shocked public opinion in 2021. Police recovered her body from the waters of the Seine. A 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl were arrested and convicted a few months later for this heinous crime.