23-year-old Hahraban Kh-B was indicted for murder after she allegedly killed a lookalike she found on Instagram with the intention of faking her own death, according to media reports from Friday.
Police began investigations into the incident after the body of a young woman was found in a parked car in southern Germany in August 2022.
"I can confirm that the accused 23-year-old female obviously planned to start a new life due to family problems," police spokesperson Andreas Aichele told NBC News.
Kh-B’s family identified the body as their relative but an autopsy the following day revealed the truth, the Guardian reported. The victim was later identified as Khadidja O, a 23-year-old influencer.
Kh-B’s father told German media Bild, “the police came to us ... and said, ‘Good news, your daughter is alive.’ We were so happy. We thought she was dead.”
Police investigations also led to Sheqir K being charged with incitement to murder. K passed his cellmate a list of witnesses and offered money for the cellmate to kill them, the police claimed.
“According to the investigation, the accused, Kh-B, together with the accused K, whom she had only known fleetingly at that point, had made the decision that she would disappear and fake her own death, in order to begin a new life,” said Veronika Grieser from the Ingolstadt state prosecutor’s office.
How did they target the victim?
Kh-B wrote to multiple Instagram accounts of women who resembled her in August 2022. She offered the women an opportunity to participate in a music video with famed rapper Lune, telling O, “you don’t have to do much. I’d be happy if you got in touch … The filming will take place in Offenburg.” After this failed, she sent a new message offering the influencer a free spa treatment in exchange for a review; and the two agreed to meet.
After collecting the victim from her house, the pair is accused of driving her to a forested area where “they proceeded to carry out their plan … striking her on the back of her head at least once, so that she fell to the ground, before killing her with 56 stabs of a knife,” Grieser said.
So far, more than 190 witnesses have been identified.
This was not the first violent act that Kh-B had allegedly orchestrated, as she apparently planned for the murder of her husband’s brother. She is alleged to have paid a hitman €5000 to kill her brother-in-law with plans to pay a further €5000 once the murder was completed. However, the hitman took Kh-B’s money without performing the murder.