"the accused had contacted several women via Instagram"
A beauty blogger is accused of tracking down her lookalike on social media and murdering her in an attempt to fake her own death.
The 23-year-old woman, identified by police as Shahraban K, is accused of stabbing an Algerian woman identified as Khadidja O, also a beauty blogger, in Ingolstadt, Germany.
Khadidja was allegedly stabbed 50 times, with her face completely disfigured.
Shahraban then allegedly dumped the victim’s body in her Mercedes in a bid to make it look like she was the one who had been murdered in August 2022.
German police officers initially identified the body as Shahraban.
But suspicions arose following an autopsy.
The victim has since been identified as Khadidja, who is also 23 and has the same dark hair and complexion as Shahraban.
Prosecutors believe that Shahraban murdered Khadidja in a bid to fake her own death and go into hiding because of a “family dispute”.
She allegedly set up fake Instagram accounts to try and meet other women who looked like her.
Shahraban began speaking to Khadidja online and allegedly offered her a set of beauty products.
The suspect and her boyfriend, identified as Sheqir K, allegedly picked up Khadidja and drove her to a forest where she was stabbed 50 times.
It is alleged that Shahraban focused on disfiguring Khadidja’s face in a bid to make it difficult for investigators and her family to identify the victim.
Shahraban had told her parents she was going to Ingolstadt to meet her ex-husband but when she didn’t return to their Munich home, they went out searching and they found what they believed to be their daughter’s body in the back of her Mercedes.
But police later identified the body as Khadidja and investigators were baffled as to why the victim looked like Shahraban.
After looking at her social media, investigators found that Shahraban had been speaking to dozens of women who resembled her in the week before the murder.
Prosecutor Veronika Grieser said: “It has been confirmed that the accused had contacted several women via Instagram before the act who seemed to look similar to her.
“It can be assumed that the suspect wanted to go into hiding, due to internal disputes with her family, and fake her own death.”
A police spokesperson said: “During the return journey, the victim was lured out of the vehicle as planned under a pretext and killed in a wooded area with a large number of stabs in the body.
“The accused then continued their journey to Ingolstadt, where the body was found on the evening of August 16th.
“It was found lying in the vehicle.”
Another police spokesperson said:
“The murder weapon has still not been found but the burden of proof is overwhelming.”
“The victim was killed with more than 50 stab wounds and her face was badly injured. That was brutal in the extreme.
“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.”
Shahraban and Sheqir were arrested on January 27, 2023. They face life in prison if they are convicted of murder.
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