A GERMAN traveller is set to go on trial over the murder of a British heiress for her cash despite claiming she died in a “sex game gone wrong”.
Marc Schätzle, 30, was this week ordered to stand trial charged with the murder of Anna Reed in April 2019 in addition to counts of fraud and theft.
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Miss Reed, 22, was found dead at the Hotel la Palma au Lac in Locarno, Switzerland.
A postmortem examination concluded she died from strangulation and had also suffered small cuts and fractures.
Five months later, investigators found her credit card hidden in a panel of the lift at the Hotel la Palma au Lac in Locarno.
They suspected that Mr Schätzle had stolen it from her either before or after her death and hid it – hoping to come back for it and use it.
Schätzle, however, claimed he had hidden it there as a joke, having not told investigators about the card until they found it.
A prosecution source told The Times: “The bank card was very carefully hidden away and quite clearly it was to be collected later. The claim that she died in a sex game was never convincing.
“We believe she was murdered for financial gain.”
They added that the German dad-of-two claimed it was an “erotic game that went wrong”.
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A spokesman for the Swiss prosecutors’ office said this week: “He is accused of intentional homicide, theft, fraud and drug offences. Covid permitting he will go on trial later this year.”
Mr Schätzle, who denies deliberately killing Miss Reed, is alleged to have claimed £4,100 a month for a year in state compensation after a reported accident in 2017.
He had been dating Miss Reed, from Harrogate, North Yorks, for several months having met her while she was travelling the world.
They are believed to have met in Thailand and photos on social media show them together in various countries.
Miss Reed, whose granddad was Guy Reed, a prominent owner and breeder of racehorses, was privately educated at Ashville College in England and moved to Berlin after her A-levels.
Mr Schätzle, an ex-bouncer and dad-of-two who used the name Marc Dirtywhite, was heavily tattooed and had the word “warrior” brandished on his forehead.
HOTEL HORROR
On the evening of Miss Reed’s death they shared a £100 bottle of champagne over dinner before returning to their hotel.
And they were pictured smiling on the terrace of their lakeside hotel after checking into their £200-a-night penthouse hours before the alleged murder.
But fellow guests reportedly complained of arguing from their hotel room before Mr Schätzle arrived in the lobby to say his partner was unwell.
A hotel source said Mr Schätzle had appeared in the lobby the next morning and appeared “agitated”.
They told The Times: “The receptionist could tell by his tone that it was serious so called an ambulance.
“The medics went straight up to the room. She was on the floor of the bathroom.
“They tried to resuscitate her but there was no response. She was already dead.”
A prosecution source said after Ms Reed’s death: “The boyfriend said it was an erotic game that went wrong.”
Mr Schätzle’s ex and mum of his two kids, told a Swiss newspaper that she did not believe he could be responsible for Ms Reed’s death.
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“He has a problem with alcohol and cocaine and he was always able to travel to nice places,” she said. “He betrayed me but he is not a violent man.”
Mr Schätzle met Miss Reed after leaving his partner to go on a round-the-world tour.
Michèle Bochsler, who was Mr Schätzle’s partner for eight years, said after his arrest: “I am 1,000 per cent sure he did not mean to kill this young woman. He never ever has been violent. Never ever. It’s just not possible. I am so sure that he is innocent. It was an accident, it must have been.”
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