Die Toten von Salzburg (2016)

Major Peter Palfinger of Graz, who has been confined to a wheelchair since a paragliding accident, takes up his post as head of the Violent and Homicide Crimes Division in Salzburg. His superior, Hofrat Alfons Seywald, is surprised by Palfinger’s disability. Palfinger himself is an incorrigible optimist: he sees his incomplete paraplegia as a challenge and is convinced it can be cured. He trains so that one day he can conquer the Untersberg on his own two feet, without a wheelchair. On his first day at the new station, his first case is already waiting for him. District Inspector Irene Russmeyer assists him with the investigation. A murder takes place near the Salzburg-Bavaria border in the Untersberg area: real-estate agent Walter Holzer is found dead. Since jurisdiction in the border region is not entirely clear, the Salzburg major and Bavarian chief criminal investigator Hubert Mur from Traunstein conduct parallel investigations, each using his own methods. The press is initially told officially that it was a hunting accident, although the victim was found bound. Holzer was a notorious investment fraudster who had swindled numerous investors through a Ponzi scheme about ten years earlier, before fleeing to Bavaria to avoid prosecution by the Austrian justice system. This gives many of his victims a motive. Holzer also wanted to divorce his wife, making her a suspect too, along with idealistic lawyer Stefan Sandberger and Holzer’s Austrian business partner Nico Brix, who had acted as a front man for Holzer. Chief Criminal Investigator Mur, a straightforward and rational lone wolf with little humor or empathy, is primarily interested in the money that has gone missing from the affected investors. He believes he has found the culprit in Nico Brix and abducts him to Bavaria so he can arrest him within his own jurisdiction. Meanwhile, opera singer Dave Harper tells District Inspector Russmeyer that he lost his wife to cancer more than ten years ago. Russmeyer later discovers, however, that Harper’s wife had actually taken her own life after losing her entire fortune to Holzer. Palfinger exposes Harper as the real killer: he had taken justice into his own hands and murdered Holzer after it became clear that Holzer could no longer be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.