German woman convicted of murdering her doppelganger in attempt to fake her own death

A 25 year-old woman and a 26 year-old man were sentenced to life in prison in a German court on Thursday for the murder of the woman’s lookalike in a scheme to faker her death.

According to the court, the Iraqi-German woman, named only as Shahraban K, wanted to go into hiding due to family conflicts and fake her own death. She went onto social media to search for a doppelganger and arranged to meet a 23 year-old woman, whom she then killed with the help of an acquaintance.

The trial lasted 11 months and more than 50 days of hearings were needed. The court ruled the crime to be particularly serious, which makes it unlikely that the sentence will be suspended after 15 years — a common occurence in Germany.

Handing down the sentence on Thursday, the presiding judge in the city of Ingolstadt described the murder as a "disturbing act".

How the ‘doppelganger murder’ occurred

Prosecutors say that the victim was sounded out on social media in August 2022 and told she would receive a free beauty treatment. She was then picked up by Shahraban K and her male acquaintance, Sheqir K, to be brought to the fake appointment.

Once they had picked her up, the pair brought the victim to a wooded area and stabbed her 56 times.

The victim’s body was then placed in Shahraban K's car, where her parents discovered it and thought it was their daughter’s. But after an investigation, the corpse's true identity was discovered.

According to German media reports, Shahraban K originated from a Yazidi community in northern Iraq and may have been motivated to fake her own death after her marriage broke down.

She has also been convicted of attempted incitement to murder. The court found that she had hired a hitman to kill her brother-in-law, although the murder did not end up taking place.