Jealous husband ‘choked wife to death’ and ‘faked search to rule himself out as suspect’

Suspect previously accused of posing as burglar and stabbing wife to portray himself as saviour

The 27-year-old man is standing trial for murder in Hesse (Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)

A jealous husband choked his wife to death and set up a false search for her in a bid to rule himself out as a suspect, it is reported.

The 27-year-old, named as “Patrick S”, appeared in a German regional court on Tuesday accused of murder and dangerous bodily harm, according to the Bild newspaper. He reportedly denied both crimes but remained silent during the proceedings that day.

While the prosecution alleged that their marriage was severely strained due to his “extreme jealousy and lack of self-control”, his wife – said to be a former beauty queen referred to as “Jennifer S”, also 27 – reportedly gave him another chance on the day before her death because “he wanted to change”.

He is alleged to have murdered her with his bare hands on 27 February, before using her phone to text her sister mentioning purported plans to take a walk along the River Rhine, where he then faked a search for her as part of a suspected guise to rule himself out as responsible when her body was discovered.

Her body was quickly discovered in bushes just a few hundred metres from her apartment in Biebesheim am Rhein, and the husband was arrested the following day, broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk’s regional station in Hesse reported.

Prosecutors reportedly argued that “because he could not have her, no one else should”.

It was not the first time the man had been accused of violent behaviour towards his wife.

According to the indictment, the husband previously used a “perfidious bundle of measures” to frighten Jennifer in order to then portray himself as a saviour, Bild reported.

The January prior, he was accused of posing as a burglar and stabbing her twice with a kitchen knife in front of their five-year-old son, according to the paper.

While the case was reportedly dropped because Jennifer refused to testify in court, she was said to have remarked to ambulance and the police officials that she had recognised her husband.