Danes charge priest suspected of killing wife, body missing
A Danish Lutheran priest on Monday was charged with murdering his wife, even though her body has never been found.
The charges against Thomas Gotthard, 44, were filed after an assessment found that the evidence was “sufficiently weighty to be able to prosecute,” Prosecutor Anne-Mette Seerup said ...
Although investigators don’t have a corpse and ”hence a probable a method of murder, we have found evidence that is sufficient to us,” she said. ...
According to Gotthard, his wife Maria From Jakobsen left the couple’s home in Frederikssund, northwest of Copenhagen, on Oct. 26, in a depressed state of mind.
However, when the 43-year-old psychologist didn’t show up at the birthday party of one of the couple’s two children three days later, she was reported missing by her sister. Police said From Jakobsen left her phone, computer and credit cards behind. ...
He was detained after investigators found hydrochloric acid and caustic soda in the couple’s home and discovered that internet searches for words like “sea depth,” “oil barrels,” “suicide,” “disappeared” and “cleaning” had been made on the couple’s computer.
In a Nov. 6 surveillance video from a recycling station Gotthard was seen moving a large barrel on a hand truck. That was 11 days after his wife disappeared and 10 days before his arrest. ...
