The alleged killer of a British former Rolls-Royce designer who was stabbed to death at his home in Bavaria last week has been arrested outside Paris after a Europe-wide search, German police said. A motive was not immediately established.
Ian Cameron, 74, was attacked with a knife on 12 July and fatally wounded. A Serbian citizen, 22, was identified as the prime suspect based on tips from the public, the Fürstenfeldbruck police department said.
“After the manhunt was launched, investigators were quickly able to establish the identity of the suspect, verify it with the authorities and transfer it to the investigators of the Bavarian state criminal investigation office,” police said on Friday.
The suspect is believed to have fled the region via Munich, then Innsbruck and Zurich to France, where he was found in a flat in Aubervilliers, north-east of Paris, and taken into custody on Thursday morning by a special unit of the French police in coordination with German federal police. Authorities in Serbia, Austria and Switzerland contributed to the operation.
“The suspect was alone at this time and did not resist arrest,” police said. He was to appear before a French investigating judge on Friday.
Europol, the EU’s police body, said it was an operation “showcasing the power of international police cooperation” which it coordinated. It said the suspect would be extradited to Germany to face charges.
The German daily Bild said the knife believed to have been used in the murder had been found in a forest near Cameron’s mansion in the town of Herrsching on Lake Ammer and was being examined for DNA evidence.
It said nothing had been stolen from the home, leaving the motive a mystery. The suspect, who is believed to have rung the bell at the residence to gain entry, was found with €200 (£168) on him when captured.
Cameron’s wife, who reportedly works for a car manufacturer, was at the house during the attack and managed to escape by running to a neighbour’s home and alerting the police.
The assailant is believed to have fled on foot.
“We are working on the assumption that the perpetrator and the victim did not know each other,” the Fürstenfeldbruck police chief, Manfred Frei, told German media, adding that a contract killing could not be ruled out.
Investigators had released CCTV images of a bearded man at a local supermarket, where he bought gloves, as well as pictures of the suspect wearing a blue hoodie and a red backpack. Police said they had received more than 80 tips from the public.
The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the decisive information had come from a witness in Munich who recognised the suspect in the photos and knew his name.
Cameron retired from Rolls-Royce in 2013 after serving as its chief designer, working on several of the luxury carmaker’s models.
