Prosecutors in the German town of Aschaffenburg have charged a man with murder more than 41 years after the violent death of a trainee nurse in northern Bavaria.

Authorities said the former boyfriend of 19-year-old Maria Koehler was accused of strangling her with a mesh scarf on July 30, 1984, out of jealousy and revenge.

What did the prosecution say?

"Based on its investigations, the public prosecutor's office assumes that he acted treacherously," they said. 

Police had long suspected Koehler's ex-partner but were unable to locate him for decades.

Koehler had ended the relationship and started seeing a new boyfriend, a US soldier stationed in Hanau, before her death. Investigators said the suspect fled from Frankfurt to Turkey after the killing, where he was born.

Two days later, Koehler was found dead by a supervisor in a nurses' residence in Aschaffenburg.

What about the victim's family?

The victim's family expressed relief at the arrest and thanked investigators, Bavarian broadcaster BR24 reported.

"I truly hope for justice," said her sister. "It's all coming back as if it happened just a month or two ago."

She said she had told her mother, who suffers from dementia, about the arrest and that her mother had tears in her eyes afterward. The family hopes the man will be punished, she added.

How did the suspect stay at large for so long?

The suspect, now 66, was wanted worldwide for years. Authorities said he had no citizenship, having reportedly lost Turkish nationality after refusing military service. He reentered Germany in 1998 under a different name with his German wife, whom he is believed to have married in Turkey.

He then lived in Aschaffenburg for about 16 years under a false identity before returning to Turkey.

Cold case investigators reopened the case in late 2024 and located him in Turkey.

He was transferred to Germany in September and confessed to the killing, prosecutors said.

Experts also secured DNA evidence on the suspected murder weapon, with prosecutors saying it pointed to the suspect with near certainty.

If the regional court admits the indictment and a trial goes ahead, only a murder conviction remains possible, since other offenses are time-barred.

Edited by: Louis Oelofse