Husband Who Butchered Wife Sentenced To Life

A husband who strangled his wife and hacked her body into pieces before packing them into a suitcase has been sentenced to life behind bars.

One of the last mutual photos of Ekaterina Baumann, a Russian woman from the city of Saint Petersburg, who was murdered and dismembered in a suitcase and thrown in a river (right) and her mother Svetlana, aged 53. (Newsflash)

Accused Walter Baumann, 47, burst into tears when judges found him guilty of murder at Bremen district court, Germany, on Tuesday, 23rd May.

The IT expert has always denied butchering his Russian-born wife Ekaterina Baumann during the long-running trial.

The court had heard how Baumann had first drugged 32-year-old Ekaterina before throttling her and chopping up her body in February last year.

She was reported missing for a month before her body washed up on the River Weser, near the port city of Bremerhaven, on 1st March 2022. 

Bizarrely, the only body part not found in the case was a piece of the victim’s right thigh, according to local media.

Baumann is expected to serve at least 15 years behind bars before he is eligible for parole.

The pair met and married within a year while Ekaterina was still a student and had a daughter Viktoria in 2017.

Image shows the location where the remains of Yekaterina Baumann, 32, were dropped, undated photo. Her mother-in-law Ludmilla Baumann, 66, confessed to the murder that occurred in the city of Bremerhaven, Germany in February 2022. (Newsflash)

But when the couple split Baumann decided to kill his estranged wife to stop her taking the EUR 500,000 (GBP 435,000) family home and so he could have custody of their daughter, the court heard.

Ekaterina was last seen alive on CCTV footage as she entered their home along with her daughter around 4pm on 5th February 2022.

Her severed hands were found inside disposable gloves, while her other body parts were wrapped in foil or rubbish bags.

Police later arrested Baumann as the prime suspect.

Prosecutors told how Baumann had drugged Ekaterina with a drink spiked with diazepam he had bought from a pharmacy in January 2022.

He had then reportedly strangled her with his hands while she was sleeping, as his mother Ludmilla Bauman helped him dispose of the body.

During one of 42 hearings, Ludmilla Baumann, 66, – the accused’s mother – tried to save her son by claiming that she had killed her daughter-in-law.

Yekaterina Baumann, (right) a Russian woman from Saint Petersburg, who was in the process of divorce from her German husband, (left) was reported missing. (@k.baumann/Newsflash)

But judges dismissed her claims believing she was trying to get her son off the hook by taking the blame herself.

The presiding judge said: “We are convinced that it wasn’t the mother. It was the husband, Walter Baumann, and it was murder.”

Baumann has the right to appeal, as the verdict is not final yet.