Steirermord (2024)

Dan-Linh, a Vietnamese woman and the fiancée of Count Otto von Glanzberg, head of the House of Glanzberg, is kidnapped. The ransom demand is one million euros. As the kidnapper requested, the count wants to handle the matter without involving the police. However, by the time the ransom is handed over, the kidnapped woman is already dead. During the escape, the count shoots one of the two kidnappers. The second kidnapper gets away unidentified. Sascha Bergmann of the Graz State Criminal Police Office and his colleague Anni Sulmtaler begin investigating the aristocratic family and their circle. Bergmann’s task is made harder by the fact that his superior, Nicole Sturm, is friends with the count and gives him preferential treatment. Through his connections, the count gets inside information about the investigation, and Bergmann feels that this is hampering his work. Dan-Linh was probably suffocated; the time of death was the previous night. Sulmtaler finds it strange that the extortionists did not check whether the count would even agree to their demands. Viktoria von Glanzberg is the count’s ex-wife and Alexander’s mother; Heinrich is the count’s brother. Serafina, Heinrich’s daughter, is married to Kristoph Rauner of the Rauner car dealership, and their son is Maximilian von Glanzberg. Dr. Seitz is the family’s lawyer. With the exception of Viktoria, who lives in Graz, the family members live in the castle. Serafina and Alexander work at the count’s magnesite plant. Alexander works there part-time and otherwise makes music and composes Schlager songs. Only Dr. Seitz, Heinrich, and Otto knew about the extortion. Dan-Linh had studied with Serafina and, before the kidnapping, had been on her usual trip home from the magnesite plant. She was born in Germany and lived with her family in Graz; at the plant, she worked in management for Otto. The divorce between Otto and Viktoria was amicable, even though her alimony was not as high as she had hoped. In return, the apartment in Graz was paid for. As the count’s wife, Dan-Linh would have had all the inheritance rights provided by law. The forensic team finds a tracking device in Dan-Linh’s car, which means the kidnappers knew where she was. According to Viktoria, Serafina had resented Otto’s favoritism toward Dan-Linh: a few weeks earlier, he had appointed Linh to the board instead of Serafina. Count Heinrich has a 20 percent stake in the sawmill’s turnover. For the ten years before their divorce, Viktoria and Otto’s marriage had existed only on paper and for appearances. One morning, Viktoria’s younger sister, who had had a heart defect since birth, was found dead in the marital bed beside Otto. He had tried to carry her back to her guest room so the affair would not be discovered, but Alexander saw him. Everyone in the family had assumed that Linh was only interested in Otto’s money. Heinrich’s wife has left him. Linh’s family runs a restaurant, and her father was unhappy about her relationship with the count. Her parents were considering returning to Vietnam. Three years ago, Kristoph Rauner’s car dealership was on the brink of bankruptcy, and he received help from his wife at the time. The kidnapper who was shot is identified as 30-year-old Rene Kessler. He had no connection to the family and had been convicted of financial crimes. His girlfriend Birgit says she knew nothing about it; she claims they had an on-again, off-again relationship, so she had not missed him. She also claims to have an alibi for the relevant period. Birgit, a tattoo artist, shows up at Otto’s and accuses him of lynch justice against her boyfriend, threatening him with another tragedy. According to the medical examiner, Linh was deliberately murdered and did not, as initially suspected, suffocate on the duct tape. Bergmann and the count suspect that she recognized one of the kidnappers. Serafina and her husband Kristoph give each other alibis. Following an anonymous tip, the getaway motorcycle, with a bullet hole in its rear-view mirror, is found in the parking lot of Linh’s family’s Asian restaurant. Bergmann suspects that the family may have commissioned the crime and paid the perpetrator too little, prompting him to leave the motorcycle there to direct suspicion toward them. The motorcycle was rented from Mazak Motorcycle Rentals, where Birgit was also a customer. She confirms that she rented the motorcycle but says she knew nothing about the kidnapping. She suspects that her boyfriend was only a follower. She had recently seen Rene with Alexander von Glanzberg. Soon afterward, the housekeeper Frieda finds Alexander badly injured in the castle’s arcaded courtyard after he falls from the second floor. A message on his phone says he is sorry and cannot go on living with this shame. A backpack full of money is found in Alexander’s room, and Bergmann suspects that Alexander was the second kidnapper because his father kept him short of money. Viktoria and Serafina, however, do not believe that Alexander is a murderer or that he threw himself down. While Rene Kessler also remains a possible murderer of Linh, Sulmtaler suspects there was a third man. According to his emails, Alexander wanted to buy a recording studio in Berlin for 700,000 euros and had to put down 70,000 euros as a deposit. This would give him a motive for the extortion. Rene Kessler had also been under surveillance by the domestic intelligence service, registered as a demonstrator willing to use violence, and connected to conspiracy theorists and the Reichsbürger movement. Alexander, by contrast, was more active on the left. The medical examiner finds a splinter in a head wound on Alexander that cannot be explained by his fall. Shortly before the fall, Otto had an argument with his son, which may have escalated. Otto says his brother Heinrich was the only person left in the castle. Heinrich is caught by the police and arrested at the hospital while trying to suffocate Alexander. Heinrich confesses to having suffocated Linh. He had planned the kidnapping with Alexander and Rene because Linh had divided the family and would have taken the job at the magnesite plant away from his daughter Serafina. Alexander is able to leave the hospital again.