A man in Germany will spend the next 14 year behind bars after being found guilty of murdering his pregnant lover and their unborn child. The killer allegedly burnt his young family alive because the thought of fatherhood wasn't particularly appealing to him.
According to Mirror, Eren Toben and his friend Daniel Meuller, both 20, were slapped with jail time over the weekend for the gruesome killing of 19-year old Maria Peiner last January 2015. Both men were ceaselessly blaming each other when they were brought in police custody last year. However, the blaming game turned into mute silence during the recent court hearing.
As per Daily Star, Toben and Meuller lured Peiner into a heavily forested area on the outskirts of Berlin. Toben then attacked the mother-to-be with a piece of wood before stabbing her with a bread knife. Both men then drenched the hapless Peiner with gasoline and set her on fire.
The assailants thought they had committed a well- executed crime, but they were too caught in the moment to erase all evidence of the murder. Surely enough, Peiner's body was found by casual passers-by the following day, along with the bread knife Toben had used to stab Maria.
The body was discovered at around eight in the morning. Hikers were directed to the crime scene by dogs who became restless while passing by the area, News 24 reported.
Forensic experts soon confirmed that it was Toben's fingerprints on the handle of the bread knife. Further investigation found out that Peiner was still breathing when her killers set her aflame.
Judge Regina Alex said, "For him [Toben] the crime was a solution, he wanted a free, happy life which he had control over. He abused Maria's love for him to lure her into an ambush."
She added that Meuller could have chosen not to take part in the murder but aided his friend anyway just for the sheer enjoyment of seeing the "destruction of another human being's life."
