He was a well-known German mammoth researcher - now Bernard Raymon von Bredow is dead. The 62-year-old was apparently brutally killed in a robbery at his home in Paraguay. The criminals also killed his underage daughter. The archaeologist lived in Areguá, near the border with Argentina. A police spokesman talks about how stunned the crime makes him - in the video.
The municipality has offered a reward for information on the perpetrators - more on this here.
Neighbor discovered the blood-covered corpses in the house
As the local broadcaster ABC reports, a neighbor is said to have discovered the two bodies. He saw disorder and the victims covered in blood through the window of the house and called the police. The investigators assume that the alleged robbers gained access to the property in the evening. They are said to have cut through a fence behind the house. "It is suspected that two or more people came in from behind and were looking for something," a Homicide spokesman told ABC.
What exactly the criminals were after is unclear. So far, the only thing that is certain is that their act at the end of October left quite a devastation in the house. Von Bredow's body also showed signs of torture, the report said. The researcher was probably forced to his knees or laid down before the perpetrators fired on him. His teenage daughter was also shot. According to media reports, her body was lying in a tub.
Paraguay: Perpetrators are said to have tortured von Bredow
The two are said to have lived alone in the house in Areguá, but had frequent visitors, local media reports. The police now want to evaluate the recordings of the surveillance cameras in the house in order to find further clues to the perpetrators and to reconstruct what exactly happened at the crime scene.
According to the Ultima Hora newspaper, the coroner confirmed that von Bredow was tortured before the perpetrators shot him. He had injuries to his face and bruises to his eyes. After killing the residents, the intruders apparently searched the entire house. Everything had been ransacked and there were bloodstains everywhere, as the perpetrators apparently let one of the injured victims run through the house – looking for something, the police told the newspaper.
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To sue:Were the intruders after money?
What exactly the perpetrators were looking for is not yet entirely clear. However, the police apparently assume that the robbers were looking for money because they suspected that there could be more to be had from foreign nationals.
Von Bredow is a well-known mammoth researcher who was born in Siegsdorf in Bavaria, near the border with Austria. At 16 he discovered parts of a mammoth skeleton in a gorge, which can now be seen in the museum in Siegsdorf. Later, the researcher founded a Stone Age park - the "Mammutheum" to share his enthusiasm for the Stone Age with the world. (jgr)
