Swiss nab child murder suspects

2003-04-17 18:28

Germany - Swiss police on Thursday captured two men described as prime suspects in the murder of two children in a case which shocked Germany during the past two weeks.

Swiss authorities said the suspects had consented to instant extradition back to Aachen, near the German border with the Netherlands, where they will face charges of murdering an 11-year-old boy and his 9-year-old sister in late March.

Tom and Sonja were last seen playing at an abandoned mine near their home in Eschweiler, 10km from Aachen, on March 30. The next day, the boy's body was found at a highway rest stop 15km away. He had been strangled to death.

Hundreds of searchers combed the countryside for Sonja. Her corpse was discovered by people out for a walk in woods 10km south of Eschweiler on April 6. She had been suffocated.

A special 80-member crime investigation commission working on the case was on the verge of conducting DNA genetic tests on 2 000 Eschweiler men when the inquiry narrowed to the two suspects.

Investigators fear that one or both children may have been sexually assaulted by computer technician Markus Wirtz, 28 and janitor Markus Lewendel, 33, who were next-door neighbours in Eschweiler.

But before police could make an arrest Tuesday, the duo vanished. Radio stations nationwide broadcast a description of Wirtz's car. A motorist in Switzerland saw it, and called police, who seized the two at a highway rest stop, 400km from the crime scene.

Neighbours in Eschweiler, a town with 55 000 inhabitants, voiced shock at the arrests, saying the two were quiet types. Lewendel had few friends.

- SAPA