German police arrest a woman for allegedly murdering her double to fake her own death

(CNN) — Police in Germany have arrested a woman suspected of murdering her doppelganger or double who you searched online to fake your own death.

The 23-year-old Iraqi German woman is being held at a prison in Ingolstadt, southern Germany, in connection with the death of a 23-year-old Algerian woman, Ingolstadt police spokesman Andreas Aichele told CNN on Tuesday. A 23-year-old Kosovo man is also in custody in connection with the murder.

The suspect’s parents reported her missing on August 16 last year. Her car was later found in Ingolstadt with the body of a woman inside. She had been stabbed multiple times and her face was disfigured.

Police and her parents initially identified the body as that of the missing woman. However, an autopsy and DNA analysis revealed that it was not her, but a different woman who looked “strikingly similar” to her. The victim was later identified as a 23-year-old Algerian woman.

The Iraqi German woman was arrested on August 18 after police tracked her to the Kosovar man’s apartment, according to police.

“Investigators now assume that the suspect wanted to go into hiding due to family issues and faked her death,” Aichele told CNN.

“The suspects came up with the plan to search online for a woman who looked like the Iraqi German, kill her, and place her in such a way that the corpse would be mistaken for the suspect.”

The Iraqi-German woman, who was a beauty blogger and Instagram influencer, searched online for women who looked like her and tried to “persuade them with false promises to meet her,” according to Aichele.

On January 26 and 27, the Ingolstadt district court issued arrest warrants for murder for both suspects, Aichele said.

Police have interviewed several women they contacted as part of their investigation. The two suspects, who cannot be identified by police under German privacy laws, are being held in separate prisons.