Posted on 03/12/2010 12:19:52 PM PST by nickcarraway
An opera singer is suspected of murdering her wealthy husband then using a double to assume his identity to claim his £5 million estate in a case detectives claim is "straight out of a Hitchcock film".
Police believe that Waltraud Hill, a 55-year-old soprano, killed her husband Hermann, then used a man to impersonate him to sign over to her his properties, stocks, bonds, cash and life insurance policy.
Detectives suspect that she approached up to 10 people to play the part of the "fake" husband, and once she had found a willing candidate, used a make-up artist to make him look like Mr Hill. The 71-year-old victim, a wealthy fish farmer, was reported missing from his home in the village of Kappel-Grafenhausen, near Freiburg, in October. He and Mrs Hill lived apart.
It was treated as a missing persons inquiry, until his wife allegedly attempted to unlock his assets. In December, police claim that Mrs Hill went with the accomplice to a female lawyer's office in Freiburg, where she received power of attorney for all her missing husband's estate. She also visited a public notary with him. "This, in effect, gave her control of all the finances," said police.
The alleged deception was uncovered when another man Mrs Hill had asked to impersonate her husband came forward to police.
Detectives launched an investigation in which officers interviewed 7,000 people, and found another eight people who admitted they had been asked to pose as the bogus Mr Hill.
One allegedly told detectives: "She showed me a photo of this old geezer, said there would be a 'good drink in it for me' if I played him at a lawyer's office and at a notary's. I didn't want to get involved."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
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