The wife and family of a suspect who was detained for allegedly faking a mugging and leaving their severely handicapped six-year-old son to drown in a river are refusing to accept he is guilty and standing by him.
Judges from the Innsbruck District Court placed Florian Apler, 38, in custody for 14 days, on suspicion of murdering his son Leon, aged 6, who was found drowned in the Kitzbueheler Ache river, in Sankt Johan in Tyrol, Austria.
The court claimed that he was “strongly suspected of intentionally killing Leon on August 28th, 2022, and faking a robbery”.
But despite the authorities’ suspicions, his wife Sandra was seen by his side in the courthouse during the hearing at 9am yesterday (Thursday, 2nd March).
Following the court’s decision Apler’s lawyer Hubert Stanglechner said: “He has the support of his wife and his entire family, but he is cut off from this personal support.
“He is still shocked by this accusation, you can imagine that.”
Investigators suspected that Apler, who worked as a fitness trainer, made up the whole scenario because he wanted to ‘redeem’ his son from suffering.
The boy reportedly suffered from a rare genetic condition named SYNGAP1, which causes learning disabilities.
The disease reportedly causes seizures, language delays, emotional and behavioural challenges, sleep problems, and motor delays.
When questioned, Apler told the police that he was knocked down by a robber while pushing his son Leon in a buggy on the riverbank at around 4am.
He then claimed that his son had disappeared when he came to and immediately called the police, who carried out a search for the boy.
Leon’s lifeless body was discovered in the river at around 6.30am, after he reportedly climbed out of his pushchair and fell into the stream of water.
Following the alleged incident, Apler and his wife Sandra offered a EUR 30,0000 (GBP 26,000) reward for any information to find the mugger.
Then – six months after the boy’s death – the father was arrested as the prime suspect in the boy’s killing on Monday, 27th February.
The judges feared that he might have influenced witnesses and was capable of committing a similar crime again, but Apler has so far denied the allegations.
Innsbruck Public Prosecutor Hansjoerg Mayr said: “The judge sees the reason for the blackout and the risk of committing the crime.”
When asked to comment on the allegations Stanglechner said: “That’s absurd.
“These witnesses are questioned under a duty of truth, and if they are then asked, you have spoken to the accused and it would come out that he actually tried to influence you in some direction – that would be fatal for the outcome of the case procedure.
“Then his credibility would be completely ruined. It’s just absurd to assume that.
“That would be fatal for the outcome of the process.
“There is absolutely no evidence for that.
“He says very clearly that just as absurd as saying that he killed his son is the fact that he’s suddenly going to kill other people.”
Mayr revealed that they will continue to investigate the case until the next hearing and said: “Everything is taken into account that could exonerate the man and present the suspicion differently.”
