Doppelganger death

PROSECUTORS in a murder case in Germany believe the suspect got in contact with a lookalike online in order to fake her own death. Police issued arrest warrants for the suspect and an alleged accomplice at the end of January.

The body of a young woman discovered in August 2022 was originally identified as ‘Sharaban K’ a 23­ year ­ old Iraqi­German beautician. Members of the woman’s family assisted police in identifying the body, but the next day it was identified as another person, ‘Khadidja O’, a 23­year­old Algerian beauty blogger in a post­mortem report.

Police believe ‘Sharaban K’ and an accomplice reached out to ‘Khadidja O’ via Instagram message and lured her to an address where they stabbed her and feigned ‘Sharaban K’’s own death.

German police described the women as looking “strikingly similar” due to make­up, complexion and hair styles, leading the cases to be referred to as the “doppelganger murder.”