KOBLENZ, Germany – German authorities have arrested an 81-year-old man in connection with the 1994 murder of Amy Lopez, a 24-year-old Texas student whose body was found near a historic fortress in western Germany more than three decades ago.
Police arrested the suspect this week at a retirement home following advances in DNA technology that allowed investigators to reopen the cold case, Chief Public Prosecutor Manfred Mannweiler announced Wednesday.
Lopez’s body was discovered by children in 1994 near the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress along the Rhine River in Koblenz. According to the Koblenz Public Prosecutor’s Office, the victim was strangled, struck on the head with a stone, and stabbed multiple times. Her body was partially nude and showed severe head wounds, local authorities said.
“Methods have improved since the crime,” Mannweiler said. “What is possible today would have been less so in 1994.”
Investigators re-examined Lopez’s clothing and analyzed approximately 1,600 samples as part of the renewed investigation. In 2024, thirty years after the discovery of the body, police offered a 2,500 euro reward for information leading to an arrest after discovering a male DNA trace.
The case gained additional attention when it was featured on “Aktenzeichen XY,” a German true crime television program, which generated more tips from the public, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The suspect’s DNA had been on file following his 1999 conviction for attempting to rape a 16-year-old girl in Koblenz, for which he received a seven-year prison sentence. While the genetic data had later been deleted from the system, police obtained a new saliva sample from the suspect that matched DNA evidence found inside Lopez’s jeans, prosecutors said.
“There was a nagging fear gnawing at everyone that the case might never be solved,” Mannweiler said. “There’s relief that we might solve it now.”
Police informed Lopez’s father of the arrest on Monday, according to Mannweiler. The suspect is currently being held in pretrial detention at a correctional facility in Rhineland-Palatinate on suspicion of premeditated murder.
Senior detective Friederike Manheller-Sander of Koblenz police said officers took up the case after forming a specialized unit in August to examine cold cases. “Behind every case there is a person whose life was taken too soon,” she said. “Our commitment is to do everything possible to find answers.”
“This case should make it clear to everyone that law enforcement authorities do not rest as long as a serious crime remains unsolved,” Mannweiler said. “Such cases are not forgotten. Not even after 32 years.”
