Bought Bride Stabs Rich Older Hubby To Death

Story ByKoen BerghuisSub EditorJoseph GolderAgencyCentral European News

Picture Credit: CEN

A Romanian former “red-light” district worker who was ‘bought’ by a wealthy businessman twice her age to become his wife has been arrested for stabbing him to death.

Hotelier and ski lounge owner Erich Tiefenthaler, 57, was found dead in the preparation kitchen in the basement of Hotel Lisa, one of the businesses he owned in the ski resort of Flachau in the Austrian state of Salzburg.

Earlier in the evening a PR party for a beer company had taken place in Tiefenthaler’s famous ski lounge ‘Lisa Alm’, a celebrity hotspot known for its magnum bottles of champagne and beloved by stars such as skier Hermann Maier and legendary footballer Lothar Matthaus.

Witnesses reported that Tiefenthaler and his wife Petronela Mariana, 30, were visibly fighting in front of their guests.

According to local media, hotel insiders said that Tiefenthaler caught his wife while she was allegedly stealing 40,000 EUR out of a safe in the hotel basement.

He was then allegedly stabbed by his wife in the heart. Just moments later he was found by hotel workers, with the blood-soaked knife being put on a nearby table.

Petronela Mariana fled to a friend’s house in the Austrian-German border area, but reported herself to the cops after she heard that an arrest warrant had been issued for her.

During interrogation, she reportedly told the cops that Tiefenthaler’s death was not intended.

According to Ms Tiefenthaler, she had a knife in her hand as she had just used it to prepare a snack and what followed was “just an accident”.

However, police investigators suspect her of murder or manslaughter.

According to local media, Petronela Mariana had a blood-alcohol level of 0.24 grammes of alcohol for every 100 millilitres of blood at the time of the murder.

Unconfirmed media reports also noted that cops found cocaine in Tiefenthalers’ pockets.

According to local media, Tiefenthaler first got to know his Romanian-born wife “through red-light circles” which he “freed her from” when he fell in love with her.

The two were reportedly known for their lavish lifestyle in which champagne and drugs consumption were commonplace.

They got married in a two-day wedding on 19th and 20th May 2017 even though Tiefenthaler’s friends warned him that the relationship would only end badly and that she was just out for his money.

Petronela Mariana is currently locked up in investigative custody.

Investigations are ongoing.