Ex-wife attacked

After the bloody attack: “Wanted to teach her a lesson”

The attack happened in this parking lot of a grocery store on Wednesday

(Bild: Constantin Handl)

After knife attack on ex-wife, interviews with the suspect give a deep insight into his inner life. Power and possessiveness could have been to blame for the bloody attack in Linz. Shortly before the man stabbed himself, he had also torched his well-hidden tent camp.

More and more details are becoming known about Wednesday morning's bloody deed in Linz: A 45-year-old homeless man had ambushed his ex-wife in a parking lot and attacked her with a knife with an eleven-centimetre blade. She was able to save herself in her vehicle and suffered a stab wound to the chest in the attack, which also injured her lungs.

Attempted murder
After the attack, the 45-year-old turned himself in to the police, who are investigating attempted murder. "The suspect has no criminal record but is likely to have an alcohol problem. The couple had been divorced for a year," says Ulrike Breiteneder from the Linz public prosecutor's office.

Woman stalked
During the interrogation, he gave a deep insight into his inner life. "He said that he just wanted to talk to his wife and teach her a lesson," says Breiteneder. He had often taken the streetcar past the 31-year-old's apartment to then call her and accuse her of meeting other men.

Camp set on fire
The man from Linz is also being investigated for arson. Just an hour before the knife attack, he is said to have set fire to his well-camouflaged tent camp in the Ebelsberg floodplains.

"The woman is mine"
Eva Schuh is the managing director of the Upper Austrian Violence Protection Center and stories like this are part of her everyday work: "Some men think 'the woman is mine, no one else can have her'." She advises those affected to seek advice sooner. Many women believe that things will work out - but unfortunately this is often a misconception.