Egidius Schiffer

Leo Egidius Schiffer (1956 – 21/22 July 2018) was a German serial killer, who was known as The Strangler of Aachen. Between 1983 and 1990, he murdered five girls and women between the ages of 15 and 31, abusing three of them sexually. His crimes were known as "hitchhiker killings" or "Disco-murders". In 1985, the programme Aktenzeichen XY… ungelöst covered his case.

Murders

The first murder was committed in July 1983 near Alsdorf: the 18-year-old Marion Gerecht was at a bus stop when she was attacked by Schiffer. When he attacked her, she fought him and trampled his windshield. Although she was able to prevent a rape, she was strangled, stripped and thrown into a fishing pond.

In February 1984, Schiffer attacked 15-year-old Andrea Wernicke near the nightclub “Rockfabrik“ in Übach-Palenberg near Geilenkirchen. She habitually hitchhiked home after visiting the nightclub. He raped her before strangling her and dumping her body near an open field.

On 31 August 1984, 17-year-old Angelika Sehl got into Schiffer's car and was murdered.

In December 1985, 18-year-old Marion Lauven was abducted, raped and killed in Aachen. She too had been standing at a bus stop. For an hour, Schiffer drove across the region with the body in the trunk until he found a place to drop it off. He covered her bare body with leaves and then left.

On 16 June 1990, Sabine Neumann disappeared in Niederkrüchten on the way home from the nightclub "Inside". Schiffer had dragged the 31-year-old into his Mercedes, where he raped and strangled her. A year later, her skeletonized remains were found by passersby in a forest near Wegberg. The body was identified based on dental records.