The father of a six-year-old child who drowned in Austria half a year ago has to be remanded in custody on urgent suspicion of murder. This was decided by the Innsbruck Regional Court on Thursday, the public prosecutor's office said. "The man is therefore strongly suspected of having deliberately killed the boy on 28.8.2022 and faked a robbery," according to the prosecution. The 38-year-old father of the mentally impaired child is not confessed, according to authorities, and remains with his presentation.
"My mandate rejects the claim of the police that he threw his son into the flooding Kitzbüheler Ache to relieve him of his suffering, decisively and as completely absurd," said the lawyer of the suspects. Especially in the time before the incident, the condition of the boy and the care situation had improved.
According to the earlier version of the crime, the 38-year-old had been knocked down during a walk by a stranger with a bottle and robbed in an unconscious state. After that, the child is said to have climbed out of the stroller and fallen into the Ache.
According to the APA news agency, one of the indications that heralded a turning point in the case is the bottle with which the father was allegedly knocked down. He is said to have carried this bottle himself in the stroller. Also, the injuries could not be reconciled with the act. The public prosecutor's office does not want to comment on this and other evidence.