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DNA Proves It: Woman Convicted of Killing Her Neighbor With COVID

Based on viral DNA, experts determined with “almost 100 percent” certainty that the woman transmitted the fatal infection.

An Austrian woman has been found guilty of fatally infecting her neighbor with COVID-19. On Thursday, the woman received a three-month suspended sentence and a fine of $886.75 for grossly negligent homicide, avoiding jail time. The family of the deceased man, who was a cancer patient, alleged that he encountered the 54-year-old woman in a stairwell on Dec. 21, 2021, although she maintained she was too sick to leave her bed that day. However, the viral DNA was a match for both the man and the woman, suggesting with “almost 100 percent” certainty that the defendant had transmitted it, according to an expert witness. “I feel sorry for you personally—I think that something like this has probably happened hundreds of times,” the judge told the woman at sentencing. “But you are unlucky that an expert has determined with almost absolute certainty that it was an infection that came from you.” This is the second time the woman has been convicted of an offense related to COVID. Last summer, she received a separate three-month suspended sentence for intentionally endangering people with the virus.