Police link fugitive teenager and accomplice to 19 offences

Police have linked a 16-year-old who escaped from a detention facility in Innsbruck with a 21-year-old man to 19 alleged offences in Upper and Lower Austria, ORF reported on Tuesday.

The teenager, from Kirchdorf district, used a one-day leave from the detention facility on June 19 to flee, according to police. In the following weeks, he allegedly committed numerous property offences, sometimes alone and sometimes with the 21-year-old, from Perg district.

The offences occurred in the districts of Amstetten, Perg, Freistadt and Urfahr-Umgebung. Police said their investigation had established a total of 19 offences involving the two suspects, but did not initially provide details of the individual cases.

On July 25, the pair were travelling with three other suspected accomplices in a stolen car on the S10 expressway towards Freistadt, investigators said. The group had to abandon the vehicle in the municipality of Kefermarkt after it broke down.

Police immediately launched a search. The two main suspects were arrested at around 10 p.m. The three juvenile suspected accomplices were reported while remaining at liberty.

After consultation with the Linz public prosecutor’s office, the two main suspects were taken to the Linz detention facility on July 26. The 16-year-old has since been transferred back to the detention facility in Innsbruck.

The 21-year-old Romanian is currently being held in pre-trial detention at the St. Pölten detention facility.