Manuel H. was accused of twice poisoning his wife and his new girlfriend’s grandmother with the poison thallium. Apparently he also wanted to get rid of his pregnant partner in a perfidious way. FOCUS Online knows the details of the case – and the double life of the alleged murderer.
During interrogation after his arrest, the suspect pretends to be ignorant: he says he has never heard of thallium, a heavy metal. Manuel H. vehemently denies having murdered his second wife and the grandmother of his current partner with the highly toxic substance. He also rejects allegations that he is also said to have poisoned his pregnant girlfriend. The hygiene technician asserts that he is not at all capable of killing a person.
When the death investigators at the Cologne police headquarters confronted him with the explosive finds during the search of the house in Hürth on November 30, 2021, H. looked for excuses. He cannot conclusively explain the can of thallium found in his jacket. As FOCUS Online has learned from legal circles, the accused only admits possession of a syringe of potassium chloride.
Injected in high doses, it is also a lethal agent. The substance immediately leads to cardiac arrest. For the coroner, a murder with potassium chloride is also difficult to prove. As a result, prosecutors suspect that the now imprisoned employee of the Fliedner Hospital in Ratingen wanted to use the syringe to end another murder plot: his pregnant girlfriend, who had survived his first attack with thallium, was apparently supposed to get through the potassium chloride syringe die. This is suggested by the investigations by the Cologne police.
In the meantime, Manuel H. has been charged. The start of the process is probably planned for autumn. It’s about double murder, attempted murder and an attempted abortion by poison. The case represents an abnormal crime that also reveals medical misdiagnosis and law enforcement oversights.
The public prosecutor’s office has therefore also applied for subsequent preventive detention in the event of a guilty verdict. Martin Bucher and Mutlu Günal, defense counsel for the accused, point to the presumption of innocence. “Our client will continue to defend himself in silence. We are assuming a lengthy circumstantial process.”
However, the chain of evidence seems to be quite conclusive. According to the investigation, the vita of the accused also points to a bizarre double life. Manuel H. has been secretly making contact with women who want him to have a child via sperm donor platforms since 2020 at the latest. He uses the alias “Thomas Meinhard”. A relationship produces a daughter, but her father does not contact her.
Apparently, the accused is absorbed in the role of child maker without wanting to take responsibility. During their investigations, the police registered contact with 37 women. The trained nurse is said to have continued some liaisons alongside the relationship with his pregnant girlfriend. His lawyers do not want to comment on this.
Who is the man who is said to have murdered two women in cold blood? Manuel H. grew up in a well-to-do house. In Solingen he does his Abitur. After his civil service, he wants to become a pilot, but fails the entrance exam. He dropped out of his studies twice before completing a nursing degree in 2010.
During this time he frequently changed his relationships. In 2011 the young man married for the first time, the marriage ended in divorce three years later. H. meets his second wife through a dating platform. With Manuela S. (name changed), a teacher, he bought a house in Leverkusen. The marriage takes place in 2017 on Norderney.
Happiness lasted three years before Manuel H. ordered 25 grams of thallium from his employer’s address at the end of April 2020, according to investigators. This poison works insidiously. Within two weeks, the patients develop massive clinical pictures. Hair falls out, in the final stage the victim suffers terrible pain before death occurs. That’s what happened with the second wife.
In mid-May 2020, Manuela S. has to be admitted to a hospital in Leverkusen. She was in pain all over her body. Signs of paralysis worsen their condition. Finally, after artificial respiration, she is transferred to the Düsseldorf University Clinic. The teacher died there on May 29, 2020.
However, neither the police nor the doctors found thallium poisoning, they rather suspect the so-called “Gullian-Barré syndrome”. An autoimmune disease that can lead to muscular paralysis. Nobody suspected Manuel H. at the time. Especially since he takes on the role of a deeply grieving widower.
However, the financial investigation reveals that the alleged killer benefited from the death of his wife. He appears as the sole heir, receives the house in Leverkusen, rents the property for almost 1700 euros, collects life insurance and other five-digit amounts from his deceased wife.
Since being alone is not for him, the accused soon looks for a new partner on dating platforms. Three months after the death of his second wife, he struck gold. Again it is a teacher. At the end of November 2020, the two move in together.
H. also gets to know the grandmother of his new girlfriend. At the age of 92, Waltraud N. (name changed) still lives in her house in Hürth. In March 2021, according to the public prosecutor, the accused is said to have come up with a new murder plan. Suddenly the old woman begins to complain of diarrhea, and within days the sprightly elderly woman lapses. Waltraud N. can no longer get out of bed and begins to cry out in pain if someone even touches her lightly. The pensioner dies on April 1, 2021. But nobody suspects that the old woman was poisoned.
Shortly thereafter, the granddaughter moves into her deceased grandmother’s house in Hürth with her new partner. The teacher will become pregnant in mid-August 2021. Happiness seems perfect. Just over a month later, she began to have the same symptoms as her grandmother.
While her partner is caring for her in the hospital, he enters search terms like “thallium pregnancy” on Google. He also clicked on the topic of potassium chloride dozens of times. Most recently, he is trawling through a diploma thesis entitled “Poisoning and toxins, effects during pregnancy and breastfeeding”.
Meanwhile, his pregnant partner’s condition is deteriorating rapidly. In mid-November 2021, the patient becomes temporarily unconscious. After all, she has to be artificially ventilated. On November 26, the doctors diagnose thallium poisoning and administer an antidote.
The victim’s mother then went to the police. She still remembers the stories told by her future son-in-law all too well. In conversations, he had openly talked about the symptoms of his deceased second wife. Characteristics that coincide with her daughter. The investigators take the tip seriously and storm the house in Hürth. The toxins were found in the suspect’s black jacket.
The motive for the murder remains unclear. The accused also diverted the accounts of his pregnant partner in such a way that he received a good 65,000 euros from health insurance subsidies, but these are indications, nothing more. Since Manuel H. has so far remained silent after the first interrogation, the law enforcement authorities are still puzzling over how he administered the thallium to his victims and why he is said to have committed his murders?
The case has at least one positive aspect: According to the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, his recovered ex-partner has now given birth to her child. So far, no permanent damage has been found, it said. “We hope it stays that way.”
Read more about the case here: Investigators are still puzzling over the motive – Bizarre double life – Homicide: Sperm donor is said to be a multiple poisoner
