Graz court plans two major murder trials for November

Two major murder trials are planned for November at the criminal court in Graz, ORF Steiermark reports. One case concerns a teenager accused of killing an elderly couple in St. Peter am Ottersbach; the other involves a 31-year-old accused of murdering his former girlfriend, a Graz-based influencer.

The young man from southeastern Styria has admitted entering the couple’s home in April and stabbing the man and woman. He told police he acted out of a desire to kill. He did not know the couple but chose them because he expected their age would mean they could offer little resistance. He discarded the hammer he used to get into the house; investigators recovered the suspected murder weapon, a knife.

The teenager called police after the attack and surrendered. A child and adolescent psychiatric assessment found that he had a mental disorder, but was criminally responsible at the time of the killings. His pre-trial detention was changed in June to placement in a forensic therapeutic centre.

The influencer was killed on November 23, 2025, according to the allegations. Her 31-year-old former partner from Slovenia is accused of killing her in her apartment, taking her body across the border in a suitcase and burying it in a remote wooded area. He has admitted to investigators that he transported and buried her, but denies killing her.

An investigation into the accused man’s brother and stepfather, who were suspected of helping transport and bury the body, has been discontinued. Investigators found no evidence that the two Slovenian citizens assisted him in Austria. Acts allegedly carried out in Slovenia fall under that country’s jurisdiction.

A trial date has not yet been set for a separate case against a police officer from the Cobra special unit. He is accused of strangling a 34-year-old woman from Tillmitsch in January. The indictment has been filed, and he faces charges of murder and disturbing the peace of the dead. He has said he was connected to the woman’s death but that it was not intentional, describing it as an accident. He has admitted burying her body near his parents’ home.