Woman found lookalike
A German woman is accused of murdering a lookalike she found on Instagram in an elaborate attempt to fake her own death.
The alleged perpetrator – identified only as Sharaban K., 23 – killed beauty blogger Khadidja O., also 23, in Ingolstadt, Germany last August, investigators say.
Khadidja O. had been brutally stabbed more than 50 times, her body left in the back seat of Sharaban K.’s Mercedes. Sharaban K. and an accomplice — identified as her boyfriend Sheqir K. — then went into hiding.
When the body was found, police traced the car registration to Sharaban K’s family. Since the corpse had been disfigured, investigators assumed she was the victim.
However, a subsequent autopsy report revealed that the real victim was Khadidja O., sparking an investigation into the bizarre case dubbed “the look-alike murder” by German media.
This week, police charged Sharaban K. with murder, with prosecutors saying she scoured Instagram in an effort to find a victim who matched her physical appearance.
“It has been confirmed that the defendant contacted several women via Instagram prior to the act who appeared to resemble him,” Attorney General Veronika Grieser told local publication Bild. “It can be assumed that the suspect wanted to hide, due to internal conflicts with her family, and fake her own death.”
Investigators say Sharaban K. connected with beauty blogger Khadidja O. via Instagram last summer, messaging her about cosmetics.
She allegedly enticed the victim to meet by offering her a set of beauty products.
On the day of the crime, Sharaban K. told her parents that she was going to visit her ex-husband in Munich. Instead, she and her boyfriend Sheqir K. reportedly picked up Khadidja O. in a Mercedes.
At one point, investigators believe they headed for a forest where Khadidja O. was stabbed more than 50 times. The facial injuries were so severe that she was unrecognizable.
Sharaban K. and Sheqir K. then reportedly parked the Mercedes in an easily identifiable location, leaving the body in the back seat.
Police were baffled after learning that the victim was not Sharaban K. as initially suspected. They then looked at her social media matches, finding that she had connected with several look-alikes. They formed the theory that she murdered one of the women in a mad attempt to fake her own death.
Sharaban K. was later found and arrested. This week she was formally charged with murder and faces life in prison if convicted of the horrific crime.
Sheqir K. has also been charged with complicity and also faces a prison sentence.
Police spokesman Andreas Aichele told Bild: “The murder weapon has still not been found, but the burden of proof is overwhelming.”
“The victim was killed with more than 50 stab wounds and his face was seriously injured. It was brutal in the extreme,” he added.
“It was an extraordinary case that required all the skills of the investigators. We don’t get a case like this every day, especially with such a dramatic twist. The day we found the body, we didn’t expect it to develop like this.
