SUBSTITUTE VICTIM

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 148, 19 March 1931, Page 9

SUBSTITUTE VICTIM

German “Blazing Car” Case MAN AND WIFE CHARGED (Rec. March 18, 7 p.m.) Berlin, March 17. A case paralleling that of Russia’s has begun at Helensburg. The police found by the roadside a burned car in which was a charred body which was identified and burled as that of Eric Tetzner, whose life was insured for £7OOO. The police were suspicious, watched the “widow,” and overheard her telephoning to Strasburg, where they found and arrested Tetzner. At first he confessed that he picked up a tramp, knocked him Insensible with a spanner, and set fire to the car. Later, Tetzner pleaded that he accidentally ran over and killed the tramp. He then conceived the idea of an insurance swindle. He persisted in to-day’s trial that the latter story was the true one, but the police unearthed a witness named Ortner, who said that on November 26 he accepted Tetzner’s invitation for a ride and was attacked with a spanner, but escaped. Frau Tetzner is charged with aiding and abetting her husband. It is revealed that Tetzner, who was a commercial traveller, previously managed to insure his mother-in-law for £5OO a month before her death from cancer. The prosecution submitted that the easy success of this case induced Tetzner to stage his own death.