Cold case solved by DNA breakthrough 30 years after tourist stabbed to death in fortress

An 81-year-old man has admitted to killing a young American tourist in Germany more than 30 years ago.The man pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and killing 24-year-old Amy Lopez in the western German city of Koblenz in 1994, news agency dpa reported.The defendant’s name was withheld due to the country’s strict privacy laws.His lawyer Volker Klein spoke at the opening of the man’s trial at the Koblenz district court to confirm that his client fully admitted to the crime.When presiding judge Rupert Stehlin asked the defendant it that was true, the 81-year-old nodded and said “yes”.Ms Lopez was visiting Koblenz, a picturesque city at the meeting point of the Rhine and Moselle rivers, on 26 September 1994 when she was killed.Amy Lopez's body was found by children playing at the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in the German town of Koblenz (Fritz Geller-Grimm/Wikimedia Commons)The prosecution has accused the defendant, who was 49 years old at the time, of “killing a person in a treacherous manner and for base motives in order to satisfy his sexual urges”.It is alleged that he lured Ms Lopez under false pretences into a secluded room of the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, a large fortress dating from the early 1800s that forms part of a Unesco World Heritage site.He then allegedly handcuffed her, sexually assaulted her and killed her with nine knife wounds to the chest.The suspect allegedly also strangled Ms Lopez with a belt and struck her on the left side of her head with a rock when she tried to defend herself and shouted, dpa reported.Her body was found shortly afterward by children playing nearby.The case remained unsolved for decades until Koblenz police formed a cold case unit in August 2025 and reopened the file.“Behind every case there is a person whose life was taken too soon,” senior detective Friederike Manheller-Sander of Koblenz police previously told CBS.“Our commitment is to do everything possible to find answers.” Investigators analysed old DNA traces using new methods, ultimately leading to a breakthrough. DNA found on Ms Lopez’s waistband and thigh were eventually linked to the defendant, dpa reported.He was arrested in late February at a nursing home in the Koblenz area and has been in pre-trial detention since.A total of eight trial days have been scheduled and a verdict is expected in September.