Husband Tosses Wife’s Dismembered Body into River to get Custody of Kids

A German man killed his wife, chopped her body into pieces, and stuffed them into a case which was then tossed into a river, all in an attempt to get sole custody of the couple’s only child.

The husband, who court documents refer to only as “Walter B.,” is charged with drugging his wife, 32-year-old Yekaterina Baumann. After killing her, they say he cut off her head and arms, and legs and packed all of the body parts into a suitcase that he then tossed into a river in the city of Bremerhaven, Germany.

Walter B., 46, has now been charged with her murder before the Bremen Regional Court in the old town of Bremen, Germany.

The heinous act was discovered when the suitcase containing Yekaterina’s body washed up on the riverbank back in March.

Despite being married for 10 years, suspicions fell on Walter B., who had claimed his wife had run away to account for her disappearance. 

The prosecution believes that the suspect spiked his wife’s drink with a substance called diazepam, before strangling her while she was fast asleep.

He then chopped her body up and wrapped several parts into foil and rubbish bags. According to the indictment, the 46-year-old then stuffed each body part into a suitcase – which he later threw into the water.

During the investigation, it was discovered that the suspect had been abusive towards his wife, who had fled to a women’s shelter on more than one occasion before her murder.

It appears the situation worsened when Yekaterina, from Saint Petersburg, filed for a divorce. Reportedly, she was planning to return to her home country with the couple’s six-year-old daughter, Viktoria.

The suspect allegedly even took away the woman’s bank cards and forbade her from meeting people outside of the home, according to Yekaterina’s mother, Svetlana, 53.

Prosecutors are now suggesting Walter B.’s motive was to prevent his wife from getting “sole custody” of their only child and fleeing the country with the young girl.

The couple got married in 2010 after meeting while on holiday in Turkey back in 2009.

They got married in Bremerhaven the following year, and their daughter was born in 2017.