German kindergarten ‘murder’ probe: Teacher, 25, is held after three-year-old dies of respiratory failure – as cops examine similar near-fatal incidents at her former workplaces
- Sandra M. was arrested on 19 May on suspicion of murdering the child in Viersen
- The 25-year-old teacher told police the child stopped breathing during nap time
- ‘Doctors ordered a forensic report after discovering injuries all over her body’
- Police today said they had discovered ‘to their horror’ that similar incidents had happened at three of Sandra M.’s previous kindergartens
A 25-year-old kindergarten teacher has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a three-year-old child stopped breathing in her class and later died.
Sandra M., a teacher at a kindergarten in the western town of Viersen, was arrested on suspicion of murder on 19 May, two weeks after her three-year-old student stopped breathing and died.
Lead investigator Guido Rosskamp told a press conference today that police had found ‘to their horror’ there had been similar incidents at three other kindergartens the suspect had been employed.
Three-year-old Greta was admitted to hospital on 21 April with breathing difficulties, a day before Sandra M. had been due to leave her teaching role at the Steinkreis (stone circle) kindergarten.
Pictured: The Steinkreis Kindergarten in the western German town of Viersen, where suspect Sandra M. was working when the three-year-old stopped breathing during naptime
The 25-year-old was questioned by the police and told officers she first realised the child had stopped breathing during nap time.
The Bild reported that the three-year-old showed signs of trauma on her body, and medical staff ordered a forensic report to find its origin.
Asked about the suspect, her previous employers or colleagues have wondered ‘why such a person who lacks empathy with children would want to take on such a job,’ the police said.
A first assault may have been committed in November 2017, when she was completing a one-year internship in Krefeld, against a three-year-old boy, said investigators.
After informing her colleagues that the boy was unconscious, they rushed to find him with his eyes rolling back in his head.
The boy was treated at hospital but became scared of returning to school, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung.
His mother said the ‘joy’ only returned to her son when Sandra M. left the school.
In that case and other incidents, the children were found unconscious, with first-aid workers reporting that their eyes were already rolled upwards, investigators said.
At her debut position, a one-year internship in Krefeld, her colleagues didn’t think she was suitable for the role, police said.
‘She had no empathic relationship, no access to children,’ Manfred Joch, head of the Viersen criminal police, said.`
At a nursery in Tönisvorst a year later, a girl told her father that Sandra M. pressed very hard on her stomach.
Police said that a two-year-old boy at one of the suspect’s workplaces in Kempern had four incidents which followed the nature of Greta’s death.
He was also rushed to hospital for seizures and shortness of breath.
Separately, criminal police had also had the suspect on their file as she had in May 2019 falsely accused a man of inflicting cuts on her face with a knife.
A forensic specialist had found subsequently that the suspect was responsible for the injuries, leading the authorities to recommend psychiatric help for her.