More than 30 years ago a man was murdered in Horn. For a long time it was not clear who the author was. Now the police have found him.

Hamburg police have solved a possible murder that occurred 31 years ago. At that time a 60-year-old man from Hamburg-Horn was murdered.

Police have now identified the perpetrator as a 53-year-old Romanian man now living in Britain. An arrest warrant was executed for the man on Wednesday.

31 years ago, the victim did not show up as usual at his flower stall at the main train station. Family members found him dead in his apartment at the time.

According to the current state of the investigation by the homicide squad and the Hamburg prosecutor’s office, the flower merchant was attacked in his apartment and initially beaten, gagged and tied up. The suspect is said to have searched the victim’s apartment and stole the day’s profits from the florist. He then strangled the 60-year-old man and fled without being recognized.

Despite intense investigations, the crime could not be solved at that time.

But the police stood their ground, reopening the case again and again and repeatedly having the seized prints forensically examined. Over time, the technical possibilities for this improved significantly.

At some point in recent years, a trace of foreign male DNA was obtained, prompting a query in the Italian database in May 2023.

Subsequent investigations confirmed the suspicions against the Romanian, who is now 53 years old. The Hamburg court of first instance then issued an arrest warrant.

Target search agents located the man in Great Britain, where he was detained by local police on Wednesday. Delivery is still pending.