Call for fresh probe into man’s death
Matthew Fitzpatrick, 34, an interface engineer from Portumna, Co Galway, was found lifeless in his apartment in Mannheim, on December 11, 2010. He was due to return to Ireland for Christmas two days later.
His ex-partner Sabrina Krause made the discovery at 11am, a police investigation found. Ms Krause was found a short time later by a neighbour crying that it was all her fault. She had a knife in her hand, had taken an overdose and had to be restrained when she tried to jump out of a window.
The German police took the position that the death was suicide, an inquest at Dublin County Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.
But his family reject any notion that Matthew took his own life. He was thinking about moving back to Ireland or move to the US, his brother Daniel said.
He was having a relationship with a married Russian woman whose husband was ringing him up to 20 times a day, the inquest was told.
Deputy state pathologist Dr Khalid Jaber, carried out a second postmortem and found Mr Fitzpatrick’s death was due to asphyxia due to ligature strangulation.
A jury of nine recorded an open verdict.
