Published: 20.03.2023. 08:01h
The parents of murdered schoolgirl Louise Frisch have paid tribute to their daughter after two friends stabbed her to death in a horrific crime that shocked Germany.
Louise, 12, was found dead after she disappeared following a meeting with one of her killers – named as Luisa Halberstadt, 13, and Anna-Marie Hoffmann, 12 – in Freudenberg, near Cologne, last weekend.
Paying tribute to her in an obituary in their local newspaper, they said: “There are no words to imagine the unimaginable. The world stands still for us. You can’t see sadness, you can’t hear it, you can only feel it.”
At the top is a new picture of Louise and her date of birth – August 29, 2010 – and death – March 12, 2023.
Outside her house, her parents left a lit candle with the words: “Now you are a star in the sky.”
The man who answered the door to the house told MailLine: “We’d rather not say anything at this time, thank you.”
Meanwhile, police sources said new details of the crime had emerged – including how Louise was stabbed 32 times with a nail file before being pushed down a steep embankment in nearby woodland.
Her killers put a plastic bag over Louisa’s head before one chillingly told the other to “hit her with a rock or she’ll be lying next to her”.
Police fear Louise may have been alive before she was thrown down the embankment and died from her injuries and the sub-zero temperature conditions that hit the area last weekend.
An investigative source told MailLine: “The act itself was horrific. Experienced police officers who have been involved in many murder cases were shocked by this crime.”
“Not just the age of the victim but the age of the suspects – the murder weapon has yet to be found and although we initially thought it might be a knife, we now suspect it is a nail file.”
On Saturday, locals came to pay their respects to Louisa, leaving flowers and chocolates at a makeshift “temple” at the scene of the crime.
Louise and Anna-Maria are thought to have led Louise to her death through a disused railway tunnel leading from the village of Hohenhain – just two miles from Freudenberg – to the forest.
Local resident Tom Holpel, 21, was riding his mountain bike through the woods and stopped to pay his respects at the shrine.
He said: “It’s shocking how much it affects you. I think because of the age of those involved, they are only children. I didn’t expect to get caught up in all that, but it really upset me. I keep going through this forest and it’s been a week already but I still can’t get it out of my head. The age of the victim and the perpetrators, what’s wrong with the world?”
Because of their ages, none of the killers can be tried under German law, and officials have moved them and their families out of the area for their own safety.
It is not clear what the motive was for the killing – some reports suggested rivalry over the boy, while others said Louise said she had been bullied and was targeted for “snitching”. It is the first time in Germany that children so young have committed the murder of a victim of the same age, and is being compared to the case of Briton Jamie Bulger.
Both killers also shamelessly posted videos on their TikTok profiles of themselves dancing just hours after the murder, which also shocked the police and the local community.
The shocking videos on social media came to light during an investigation by German journalist VELT, who discovered that one of the videos of the dance was uploaded on Sunday, the day the victim – known only as Louise due to strict German privacy laws – was found .
The comments below the girls’ alleged TikTok post indicate that a boy is also involved in the whole case.
Police have now closed the accounts of all three girls, but the profiles have been recorded and shared countless times on social media.
All three girls attended Esther-Bejarano High School and have known each other for years – and were even described as “best friends”.
Flags at the school were flown at half-mast all week and pupils were offered counseling and a memorial service for Louise will be held on Wednesday at a local church.
A condolence book has been opened there for her and the service will be taken to the school for friends and classmates, while the church is reserved for family members only.
(Espresso/Nova)
