German woman searches for doppelganger on Instagram, kills her to fake her own death

Dubbed as bizarre and brutal, a murder case has come to the fore wherein a woman has been accused of seeking her doppleganger and killing her in a bid to fake her own death.

A report in the Telegraph quoted the police saying that a German Iraqi woman named Shahraban K, 23-year-old, set up a fake Instagram account to contact women bearing resemblance to her.

Shahraban spotted her lookalike in Algerian citizen Khadidja O, a 23-year-old cosmetic blogger. The accused and her partner named Sheqir K, 24, reached out to her and offered beauty products and went to pick her. While returning, they stopped in a forest where they reportedly stabbed the victim over 50 times.

Reportedly, the accused had informed that she was going to meet her ex-husband; when she did not return, her family began to look for her and found her murdered in a car near Danube. The family initialky assumed it was their daughter; however, autopsy and DNA tests stated that the deceased was Kadidja.

Additionally, the police had found several knives in the accused's partner Sheqir's flat which was near the crime site.

Another report in Washington Post quoted the prosecutor's statement saying that the probable motive was because Shahraban wanted to go into hiding due to a family feud.

The incident came to fore in August last year and the two suspects have been in custody ever since on suspicion of homicide. The WP report further stated that a district court issued arrest warrants late last week pertaining to stringent law for murder.

According to the German publication Bild, the police were baffled by the resemblance between the two women. The spokesperson was quoted saying that although they have not yet found murder weapon, the burden of proof was "overwhelming". The police personnel also added that not only was Khadidja killed with over 50 stab wounds, her face was also badly injured.