- An 81-year-old man admitted to the 1994 sexual assault and murder of 24-year-old American tourist Amy Lopez in western Germany as his trial opened on Tuesday.
- Prosecutors alleged that the defendant, who was not named due to German privacy rules, lured Lopez under false pretenses into a secluded area of Ehrenbreitstein Fortress before handcuffing, sexually assaulting, strangling and fatally stabbing her nine times.
- Children playing nearby discovered Lopez's body shortly after the crime but the murder remained an unsolved cold case for more than 30 years.
- Investigators made a breakthrough after Koblenz police re-examined DNA traces from Lopez's clothing using modern forensic techniques, which directly linked the defendant to the crime scene and led to his arrest at a nursing home in February.
- The defendant was arrested at a nursing home in February and has been in pretrial detention since. The trial was expected to span eight days of court proceedings, with a final verdict anticipated in September.
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