Niemand stirbt gern allein. Ein Krimi aus Passau (2025)

Former police officer Frederike Bader and Austrian private detective Ferdinand Zankl are hired by the pregnant Charlotte Ambrosius to find out who planted drugs on her fiancé, Phillip Danner, during his temporary release from prison. During his release, he had visited the SV Donauwelle football club. On the club’s pitch, Zankl and Bader find the body of groundskeeper Alois Morath. At first, it is unclear whether his death was murder or suicide. Commissioner Grill tells Zankl that Morath was the key prosecution witness in her first case in Passau, five years earlier, a murder trial. The chef Eduard “Edi” Eidinger was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of murdering his kitchen assistant, Lissy Schönhaupt, at Mathilde Huber’s restaurant, the Goldsteig Inn. Eidinger now runs the prison kitchen at Passau Prison, where Danner trained under him. After his release, Danner was supposed to work at the Goldsteig Inn. Charlotte is convinced that Phillip is innocent, but neither her mother, Sabine, nor her brother, Sebastian, thinks much of him. Charlotte also tells Bader about a secret phone belonging to Eidinger, which she used to call Phillip. Eidinger’s lawyer, Dr. Tamara Zieglinski, is supposed to have the number, since she smuggled the phone into the prison. Meanwhile, Mia moves out of Zankl’s place and into a shared apartment. Frederike learns from Roswitha Hertel that her daughter Mia and Roswitha’s son Franz have moved in together. At Zieglinski’s law office, Bader finds Eidinger’s number, as well as the file on Anton Vorholz, Mathilde Huber’s son-in-law. He was arrested for sexually harassing a waitress and causing bodily injury, and Zieglinski defended him. Zieglinski is Huber’s niece, and Morath had been Mathilde Huber’s caretaker for 20 years. Zankl suspects Sebastian may have planted the drugs on Phillip because Sebastian is worried about the reputation of his fabric shop. It is also possible that the son-in-law was actually Lissy Schönhaupt’s murderer and that Morath gave false testimony. Huber offers Charlotte the services of Zieglinski to represent Phillip, provided he keeps quiet. Since the drugs were sewn into Phillip’s jacket, and Sebastian cannot sew, Frederike suspects that Charlotte’s mother, Sabine, planted them on Phillip to protect her daughter. Sebastian had arranged for the drugs, and Frederike advises Sabine to turn herself in. Bader learns from Eidinger that Morath had admitted to lying at the trial. Zankl and Bader suspect Huber of murdering Morath to prevent his false testimony from coming to light. Before his death, Morath recorded a cassette in which he admitted to giving false testimony. He also revealed that Anton Vorholz had been having an affair with Lissy Schönhaupt. Mathilde’s daughter, Emilia Huber-Vorholz, Anton’s wife, had found out and stabbed Lissy to death with a kitchen knife. Mathilde had forced Morath to give false testimony. Emilia is arrested by the police.