Perpetrator remains silent

Graz: Arrow attack presents police with a mystery

Cobra officers shot the suspect.

(Bild: BMI/Gerd PACHAUER)

A 38-year-old drug addict from Graz shot his girlfriend with a bow and arrow in a frenzy. The 42-year-old's life was in danger for days, but she is now being cared for at home. The perpetrator is in custody - and doesn't speak a word.

"Help, my friend shot at me. With arrows. I'm bleeding to death." It is Sunday, September 15, when the Graz police receive an emergency call from a 42-year-old woman at 6.55 am. The woman is breathing heavily, can barely speak and doesn't know where she is. She is seriously injured, with two arrows stuck in her upper body, fired by a 38-year-old man with whom she has only been dating for a short time. The couple are drug addicts and are well known in the scene. The officers manage to find out where the victim is staying, an apartment in the Gries district.

Released into home care
It belongs to the alleged perpetrator, but he is long gone by the time the first patrol cars arrive. The 42-year-old is taken to hospital and immediately undergoes emergency surgery. For days she hovers between life and death, the projectiles have hit her heart and abdomen and injured several organs. It is only thanks to the skill of the doctors in Graz that she survived her boyfriend's attempt on her life. "She has since been released back into home care," confirms Fritz Grundnig, police spokesman.

After the insane act, the archer fled in a black car to south-eastern Styria. When he broke down and had to change the front tire, locals approached him and asked if they could help him. "He seemed completely absent-minded and was unfriendly. Something was obviously wrong with him," reports an eyewitness. At around 7 p.m., Cobra officers stop the fugitive in a wooded area in Fehring with a shot that seriously injures him.

Having recovered in the meantime, the 38-year-old is now in custody in Graz. However, the motive for his bloody deed is still a mystery to the criminologists - because the man from Graz remains stubbornly silent. "He won't talk to the police," says Fritz Grundnig. Did the man act while intoxicated, was it an attempted murder in a dispute? Only the court can clarify this question ...