German man drowns himself using concrete weight containing his wife’s head

It all began when someone found two suitcases floating on the placid waters of Traunsee lake on Monday.

This week it was discovered that an Austrian man committed a particularly grizzly murder, killing his wife and then using her head to drown himself in a lake.

The suitcase was reportedly found near the Ramsauerwirt restaurant in the town of Gmunden, which is mainly a summer health resort, with a population of around 15,000 people.

The control of the man (72), whose body showed no signs of battle, were tied to totes containing rocks in addition to personal property. A police dog later found a second suitcase with more pieces of her body. Another weighted bag was reportedly attached to his other hand.

Austrian police carry a bag that was retrieved by police divers from the Traunsee in Austria.

Postmortem examinations suggested the woman was strangled between 25 December and 1 January and that the man drowned some time later, police said.

A motive has yet to be established, according to police, but said they would provide further details at a press conference on Wednesday.