‘Killer’ Blames Mum For Wife’s Murder

A man accused of butchering his wife and packing her body parts into a suitcase has told a court that his mother killed her.

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)

Prosecutors in the city of Bremen, Lower Saxony, Germany say accused Walter Baumann, 46, murdered his wife and sank her dismembered remains in a river.

But in a rambling, one-hour statement on Thursday, 16th February, Baumann told the court that he is innocent and his mother strangled victim Ekaterina Baumann to death.

The 32-year-old mum-of-one mysteriously vanished on 4th February 2022 while going through an expensive divorce from her German husband.

But Baumann told the court: “It wasn’t me. My mother killed my wife.”

He claimed, reported local media, that on the night Russian-born Ekaterina vanished, his mum strangled her to death on the living room sofa.

She later chopped up her body in the garage and stashed the parts in rubbish bags, he said.

Image shows Walter Baumann, 46, at the trial in the city of Bremen, Germany, undated photo. He blamed his mother Ludmilla Baumann, 66, for the murder of his wife Yekaterina Baumann, 32, on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. (Newsflash)

Baumann claimed his only involvement was to help his mum dispose of the remains in the Geeste River.

He told the court: “I could never confess to something I didn’t do. I’d rather die in prison.”

His mother, Ludmilla Baumann, gave the same version of events in court in October, to the prosecution’s astounded disbelief.

Earlier reports told how Baumann proposed to Ekaterina just one week after meeting her for the first time while on holiday in Turkey in 2009.

The two married in Bremerhaven in 2010, and daughter Viktoria was born in 2017.

Friends told German media that the couple’s relationship went awry after the birth.

Image shows Yekaterina Baumann’s husband named Walter Baumann, 46, in court in undated photo. His mother Ludmilla Baumann, 66, confessed to the murder that occurred in the city of Bremerhaven, Germany in February 2022. (Newsflash)

They said: “Viktoria was his little princess, his wife was worth nothing to him anymore.”

Baumann remains in custody while his mother remains a free woman.

The next hearing is scheduled for 20th February.