Rostock (dpa/mv) – The trial against a 27-year-old, who is said to have killed his parents and sister in Rövershagen near Rostock in February, will continue before the Rostock Regional Court this morning (9.30 a.m.). The charge is triple murder. It is the sixth of eight planned days of negotiations.

A close friend of the family testified last week and reported on the relationship between the parents, their daughter and their son. “The children were everything for the parents. They were so proud of their son,” she had testified. The accused had confessed to the crimes during police interrogations, but had his lawyer retract his statements at the start of the trial on November 15.

The German is said to have brutally killed his father (52) and sister (25) and a few days later his mother (48) on February 7 this year with a crossbow and a garden machete. He is said to have buried the bodies in self-made coffins on a lonely edge of a field. If found guilty, he faces a life sentence.