The victim, Khadidja O / TikTok
The suspect allegedly used social media "to find any persons looking as similar to her as possible."
An Algerian beauty blogger (pictured above) was allegedly killed by a young woman who looked "strikingly similar" to her, in an effort by the latter to fake her own death, say police in Germany.
The wild case began back in August 2022, when the family of a 23-year-old German-Iraqi woman -- identified only as Sharaban K. in German outlets -- traveled from Munich to Ingolstadt to find her after she stopped answering her phone calls. They found a body brutally stabbed to death in her car and while police initially believed Sharaban was the victim, the autopsy "raised serious doubts about the identity" of the body.
Shortly after the discovery of the body, police announced they had made two arrests in the case, including one woman who "looked strikingly similar" to the victim, who was later identified only as Khadidja O. A 23-year-old Kosovan man was also arrested at the time.
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View StoryThis week, police in Ingolstadt announced arrest warrants for both suspects -- who have been in custody since August -- were issued on suspicion of murder.
"I can confirm that the accused 23-year-old female obviously planned to start a new life due to family problems," police spokesperson Andreas Aichele told NBC News. The woman allegedly set up different accounts on social media "to find any persons looking as similar to her as possible."
"Investigations revealed contact to several young ladies during a period of few weeks. Investigators assume that under a pretext she managed to organize a meeting with the later victim," the spokesperson added. "Together with the 23-year-old male she traveled to the Heilbronn region to pick her up and carry out the planned murder."
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View StoryIn a press release, police speculated "that the suspect wanted to go into hiding due to family problems and fake her death." They added, "According to previous knowledge, the suspects came up with the plan to search online for a woman who looked similar to the German-Iraqi woman, kill her and place her in such a way that the corpse would be mistaken for the suspect."
The two suspects are accused of driving to pick up the victim at her home, before she was "lured out of the vehicle" and "killed in a wooded area with a large number of stabs in the body, insidiously and for base motives."
In a statement to German publication Bild, the police spokesperson added, "We don't have a case like this every day - especially with such a spectacular twist. On the day we found the body, we didn't expect it to develop like this."
