Prosecutors seek life sentence for woman accused of killing eight-year-old boy in Güstrow

Prosecutors seek life sentence

Prosecutors at the Rostock Regional Court asked for a life sentence for Gina H., a 30-year-old woman accused of killing an eight-year-old boy from Güstrow. Prosecutor Oliver Schley gave the closing argument on Thursday, 29 October 2026, on the 33rd day of the trial, and said prosecutors were convinced the defendant had killed the boy. He also asked the court to establish the particular gravity of her guilt, which would rule out early release after 15 years if the judgment becomes final. The defendant denies the charges. Prosecutors put their position this way:

“There are no reasonable doubts about the defendant's guilt.”

Circumstantial evidence and the killing

There is no confession and no eyewitness, so the case rests on circumstantial evidence. Schley spent more than two and a half hours on material gathered over the 33 trial days, including witness statements, camera footage, chat messages, phone data, internet searches, intercepted phone calls, shoe prints and fibre traces. According to the prosecution, the defendant persuaded the boy to leave his phone behind and get into her car, and she then took him to a secluded pond near Klein Upahl, about 15 kilometres south of Güstrow, on 10 October 2025. Prosecutors say she stabbed him there after claiming she wanted to show him animals, at least six times according to Bild's report of the closing argument. Blick reports that the body was then set alight with barbecue firelighter, and tagesschau notes that no murder weapon has been found. Schley argues the pond was chosen because she assumed wild animals would remove any traces, citing her internet searches about wild boars and whether they also eat humans.

Motive and open questions

Prosecutors name the separation as the motive. The boy's father separated from the defendant in August 2025 after a relationship of several years, and prosecutors say she had depended on him financially and saw the split as threatening her existence. Schley argues she wanted to remove a disruptive factor in the relationship and to punish the father at the same time. He also says she expected the body to be left at the pond for animals to eat, and that she killed with hatred, which he says the stab wounds show. One question remains open for prosecutors: how she knew where the boy was. Schley said she may have seen him in Güstrow the day before.

Co-plaintiff and the road to verdict

The defendant, a 30-year-old from Reimershagen in the Rostock district, has been on trial since April. The boy's mother joins the case as co-plaintiff, represented by lawyer Christine Habetha, who also wants a murder conviction and a finding of particular gravity of guilt. In advance of the closing arguments, Habetha said she would portray the boy as a child who was caught between the fronts and entirely blameless. According to tagesschau, Habetha is convinced the defendant will be convicted. The defence will plead on Friday, 30 October 2026, after repeatedly questioning the evidence during the trial, and the defendant then has the final word. The verdict is scheduled for 10 November 2026, the 35th trial day and exactly 13 months after the boy's death, and until then the presumption of innocence applies.