Woman Accused Of Killing Lookalike, Disfiguring Face To Fake Her Own Death

A mystery straight out of an Agatha Christie novel, with a lookalike found on Instagram, a missing woman, and a murdered victim has reportedly been solved by police.

A German-Iraqi young woman who reportedly had issues with her family is suspected of finding a lookalike on Instagram, arranging a meeting with her, and then murdering her in the hope that her family would identify the body as hers and she could escape to another life.

“The crime weapon has not been found, but the evidence is overwhelming,” police spokesperson Andreas Aichele, told Bild. “The victim was killed with over 50 thrusts of the knife, the face completely disfigured.”

“I can confirm that the accused 23-year-old female obviously planned to start a new life due to family problems,” Aichele said of what has been called the “doppelganger murder.”

“Investigations revealed contact to several young ladies during a period of few weeks,” Aichele told NBC News. “Investigators assume that under a pretext she managed to organize a meeting with the later victim. Together with the 23-year-old male she traveled to the Heilbronn region to pick her up and carry out the planned murder.”

The body of Khadidja O, 23, an Algerian beauty blogger, was found last August in a parked Mercedes; she was identified as Sharaban K. by Sharaban K’s family. But the following day an autopsy revealed that the identity was not clear.

Sharaban K. and her partner in crime, Sheqir K, 23, were detained by police on August 19. The couple allegedly picked up the victim from her apartment, then parked in the woods, lured the victim to exit the car, then stabbed Sharaban K. to death before placing the body back in the car and leaving the car near the Danube, where it was discovered by Sharaban K’s parents.

“You don’t get a case like this every day, especially with such a spectacular twist,” Aichele stated. “On the day we found the body there was nothing to prepare us for this development.”

Professor Fiona Brookman, a professor of criminology at the University of South Wales, admitted “committing a murder in order to fake one’s own death — I have never come across a homicide of this kind before.”

The case of someone disfiguring a victim so the body can be identified as their own and permit them to escape to a new life was a key part of Agatha Christie’s classic “Murder on the Links,” the second book devoted to her most famous creation, Hercule Poirot, who was the subject of 33 novels.