Attempted murder on the track: mother has to go to psychiatric hospital

A young mother has to be hospitalized for attempting to murder her daughter. The Ravensburg regional court ordered the 34-year-old to be permanently accommodated. In February 2026, the woman led the then four-year-old to the tracks of a level crossing in Friedrichshafen in order to allow herself and the child to be hit by an approaching train. From the court's point of view, however, the woman was incapable of guilt due to schizophrenia.

According to the prosecution, the woman is said to have walked under a lowered railway barrier in Friedrichshafen. She is said to have put hearing protection on her daughter's head and pulled a hat over her eyes so that she couldn't hear the approaching train. The child felt safe in its mother's hand, the prosecutor said at the start of the trial.

A witness pulled the mother and child away from the tracks in time. According to his statement, only one step was missing before there would have been a collision with the train. The woman resisted his help and tried to get towards the tracks.

The charge was attempted murder

The defendant explained in court that she heard voices that told her to stop and take her own life. She was in a psychological state of emergency and acted “as if in a fog”.

The woman, who fled Ukraine to Germany with her daughter, regretted the act and said she would reverse it if she could.

The public prosecutor accused her of attempting to murder her daughter. She deliberately took advantage of the defenselessness of the four-year-old child. Legally, the court accepted the accusation. However, because the woman was not guilty according to the report, a formal acquittal was reached at the end of the trial. The decision is legally binding.

The defendant is already in the psychiatric ward. According to the court, the daughter lives in a foster family.