Iris Stalzer, 57, was left fighting for her life after being found stabbed in her apartment in Herdecke, just a few weeks after her adopted daughter lunged at her with a knife
The adopted teenage son of a newly elected town mayor has been arrested after she was “stabbed 13 times” in a frenzied attack. Iris Stalzer, 57, was found in her apartment in Herdecke, Germany, with multiple stab wounds to her back and stomach.
She was left fighting for her life in the horror attack, which happened just weeks after her adopted daughter allegedly lunged at her with a knife at their flat.
Her 15-year-old adopted son is said to have found her seriously wounded inside her home. He was led away in cuffs by cops to be quizzed, witnesses told local news outlet WELT. Investigators said his detention was to stop evidence being covered up, Bild reported.
Initial reports said the centre-left Social Democratic party politician was stabbed in the stomach and back by “several men” near her flat at around lunchtime on Tuesday.
Stalzer reportedly told her adopted son she had been assaulted on the street before managing to get back indoors. Her 17-year-old daughter was also inside the flat at the time, according to Bild.
The two children phoned the police around lunchtime, sparking a huge emergency response as police and medics rushed round to the family home.
Medics urgently placed a collapsed Stalzer on a stretcher and airlifted her to the Knappschaft University Hospital in Bochum. She was still in a critical condition this afternoon.
Police have since issued a major alert and launched a large-scale manhunt for the culprits and a special homicide squad from nearby Hagen is now investigating whether the stabbing is linked to domestic tensions inside the family, it is reported.
Investigators are said to be checking whether the boy himself could be involved after no other witnesses were found to have seen a group of attackers at the scene.
Police sources told WELT there had been an earlier incident this summer in which Stalzer’s adopted daughter allegedly attacked Stalzer with a knife. Cops are now examining whether the stabbing could be linked to that past domestic clash.
Stalzer was elected mayor for the tiny town, which has a population of around 22,500, after a runoff vote on September 28. She narrowly won with 52.2% of the vote against centre-right Christian Democrat candidate Fabian Conrad Haas. Her term office is set to begin on November 1.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned what he called “a heinous act”, adding: “We fear for the life of the mayor-elect, Iris Stalzer, and hope for a full recovery.”
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