A 23-year-old German-Iraqi woman has been charged with killing a doppelganger she found on Instagram in order to fake her own death.
Khadidja O’s body was found in August, covered in blood in a parked Mercedes in Ingolstadt, Bavarian prosecutors say, but the body was initially identified by family members as 23-year-old Sharaban K, 23-year-old beautician.
An autopsy report the next days cast doubt about the victim’s identify, the Guardian reported, and the body was eventually identified as belonging to Khadidja O, an Algerian beauty blogger from the neighboring state of Baden-Württemberg. She was also 23.
Victims and suspects are referred to by first name and a surname initial under the German legal system.
The two women were described as looking “strikingly alike,” police said. Sharaban K and a 23-year-old Kosovan, Sheqir K, were arrested in Bavaria on August 19, but it wasn’t until this week that prosecutors revealed Sharaban had contacted several women of similar appearance, using various aliases, the week before Khadidja O was killed.
“Investigations have led us to assume that the accused wanted to go into hiding because of a family dispute and fake her own death to that effect,” Veronika Grieser of the Ingolstadt state prosecutor’s office said Monday morning.
Sharaban had no luck persuading any of the women to meet with her until Khadidja did so, reportedly for a cosmetics offer. Sharaban and Sheriq picked Khadidja up outside her apartment, prosecutors said, and drove her to a wooded area, where they stabbed her to death.
“The crime weapon has not been found, but the evidence is overwhelming,” a police spokesperson, Andreas Aichele, told the tabloid Bild, according to the Guardian. “The victim was killed with over 50 thrusts of the knife, the face completely disfigured.”
Prosecutors say the two conspirators put Khadidja’s body into the back seat of their Mercedes and drove to Ingolstadt. Sharaban’s parents found the car and the body on August 16.
Sharaban and Sheriq face life in prison if convicted.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Police barrier/Shutterstock]