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Police investigate murder of elderly couple in Vienna

Xinhua, May 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

An elderly couple murdered here on Thursday was part of what may have been a robbery, police said on Friday according to a Kronen Zeitung newspaper report.

The 54-year-old son of the couple, found his parent's bodies lying dead in the backyard of their home when he came to visit them in the evening and called the police at about 22:30 p.m. local time (2030 GMT). The couple were 74 and 75 years old.

Police said the house had been ransacked and the couple's car was missing and an alert for its whereabouts has been put out.

An autopsy on the 74-year-old woman revealed the cause of death as massive head trauma, and while that of her husband has yet to be completed, the cause of death appears to have been the same.

Police spokesperson Paul Eidenberger said the authorities assumed the case was a double homicide.

Eidenberger said while robbery is one of the possible motives for the murder, investigators are not completely convinced this was the case.

The son of the couple as well as their 51-year-old daughter were looked after by counselling personnel into Friday morning, ahead of being questioned by police. Endit