German Police Arrest Teenager Accused of Murdering 9-Year-Old Neighbor

A 19-year-old man was arrested in Germany on Thursday for allegedly killing his 9-year-old neighbor and posting photos of the body online. The suspect, identified as Marcel Hesse, was the subject of a large-scale manhunt since Monday, when authorities found the child’s body in Hesse’s cellar with multiple stab wounds. Police began searching for Hesse when he posted photos on a “dark web” site of himself next to the child’s dead body, his hands covered in the victim’s blood. On Thursday, Hesse was arrested in the city of Herne after calling authorities from a fast-food restaurant to report a fire in a nearby apartment, where a second body was then found. The identity of the second victim has not yet been released, but police said it was an adult male. Hesse had also reportedly bragged in an online chatroom about killing a woman who “put up more of a fight than the child,” though police have not reported finding a woman’s body, the BBC reported. The gruesome killing has shocked western Germany, which had been on edge since Monday, when police warned the public not to approach Hesse. Local schools were also advised to keep children indoors while the manhunt was underway.