The investigations into the puzzling house explosion in Upper Bavaria will probably drag on. There are many unanswered questions. Identification of the male corpse has priority.
Rohrbach an der Ilm – a house explosion, a car accident, a fire in an empty apartment and two deaths – many questions about the puzzling case in Rohrbach an der Ilm in Upper Bavaria still remain unanswered.
The top priority is the DNA comparison to identify the male corpse, said police spokesman Karl Höpfl on Sunday in Ingolstadt. Because that could bring important starting points for further investigations.
The man was burned beyond recognition on Thursday after his car crashed head-on against an oncoming truck. The autopsy could therefore not clarify whether he is the 55-year-old who has been missing since the explosion of a semi-detached house in Rohrbach an der Ilm (Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm district). The house collapsed completely on Thursday. The emergency services later discovered a woman’s corpse among the rubble.
The dead is the 54-year-old wife of the missing person. The two lived on the ground floor of the semi-detached house. Shortly after the explosion, the fatal accident occurred in Schrobenhausen, 30 kilometers away. The car involved was registered to the address of the collapsed house. The fire in an empty apartment in the Saxon town of Lugau is also puzzling, also on Thursday at lunchtime. This belonged to the couple.
The investigators suspect that the three dramatic events are related – in which way is still unclear. “How it came about, what the background is, that must be revealed by the further investigations,” said Höpfl. He could not confirm speculations about a possible act of relationship. “From our point of view, this is still completely open.”
For this reason, the police do not want to comment on how the 54-year-old died – i.e. whether she died in the explosion or was previously dead. Because that could be perpetrator knowledge, should other people be involved in the story.
Investigators discovered gas bottles both in the car and in the house. According to media reports, they also found a gas cylinder and several canisters with flammable liquid in the fire in Lugau. The police in Chemnitz assume arson. Accordingly, the fire broke out in the attic of the apartment building. There were no injuries. A spokeswoman did not provide any further information on request about the case.
According to Höpfl, the investigation into the explosion will continue into the next week. Fire specialists had looked for traces at the scene of the accident and are evaluating them. The devastating force of the explosion made their work difficult because it destroyed a lot, said Höpfl. An expert from the State Criminal Police Office should help to find out the cause of the explosion.
For hours on Thursday and Friday, the emergency services had to clear rubble and rubble aside in order to be able to recover the corpse of the woman and the family dog. The adjacent semi-detached house was also badly damaged and had to be demolished in the meantime. The two residents were only slightly injured. The three people who lived on the first floor of the collapsed house were also lucky: They weren’t home at the time of the explosion. dpa
