If you feel like news stories that used to be considered the stuff of soap opera plotlines are becoming more common, you may not be wrong: A German woman is accused of murdering a lookalike she found on Instagram to fake her own death. Investigators say the 23-year-old woman killed a beauty influencer, also 23, last August. She then went into hiding with her boyfriend, who officials believed helped her carry out the murder. Read on to find out more about the case German media is calling "the doppelganger murder."
Authorities say the alleged murderer—who has been identified only as Sharaban K.—killed beauty influencer Khadidja O. in Ingolstadt, Germany, last August. Khadidja O. was stabbed more than 50 times and her disfigured body left on the back seat of Sharaban K.'s car. Investigators traced the car's registration to Sharaban K.'s family and assumed it was she who was the victim. But an autopsy found otherwise.
However, autopsy results revealed that the victim was Khadidja O. This week, police charged Sharaban K. with murder, with prosecutors saying she searched Instagram to find a victim with similar physical characteristics. "It has been confirmed that the accused had contacted several women via Instagram before the act who seemed to look similar to her," Attorney General Veronika Grieser told German news outlet Bild. "It can be assumed that the suspect wanted to go into hiding due to internal disputes with her family and fake her own death."
Investigators say that Sharaban K. connected with beauty blogger Khadidja O. on Instagram sometime last summer, messaging her about cosmetics, the New York Post reported. She then lured the victim into a meeting by offering her a set of free beauty products. Sharaban and her boyfriend then picked the victim up in a Mercedes. Soon after that, investigators believe they drove to a forest, where Khadidja O. was stabbed more than 50 times. The injuries to her face were so severe that she was rendered unrecognizable, the New York Post reported.
Looking into Sharaban K.'s social media history, they found she had connected with several women who looked like her. From there, they developed their motive for murder. Sharaban K. has been arrested and is awaiting trial. If convicted, she faces life in prison. Her boyfriend has also been arrested and faces jail time.
Police spokesman Andreas Aichele said this is pretty much an open-and-shut case. "The murder weapon has still not been found but the burden of proof is overwhelming," she told Bild. "The victim was killed with more than 50 stab wounds and her face was badly injured. That was brutal in the extreme." He added: "It was an extraordinary case that required all the investigators' skills. We don't have a case like this every day, especially with such a spectacular twist. On the day we found the body, we did not expect it to develop like this."
