Sharaban K: Woman hunts for lookalike online, stabs her over 50 times and kills her to fake her own death
INGOLSTADT, GERMANY: A German-Iraqi woman allegedly murdered her lookalike she found on Instagram in an elaborate plot to fake her own death. The alleged suspect, identified as 23-year-old Sharaban K, killed lookalike beauty blogger Khadidja O, also 23, in Ingolstadt in August 2022.
German authorities revealed that Khadidja had been stabbed more than 50 times and left on the back seat of Sharaban's Mercedes. The alleged perpetrator and an accomplice, now identified as her boyfriend Sheqir K, went into hiding after committing the crime. Police found the vehicle and traced the car's registration to Sharaban's family. Investigators initially assumed she was a victim given the corpse had been disfigured beyond recognition. A subsequent autopsy report uncovered that the actual victim was indeed Khadidja, sparking an investigation into the bone-chilling case, now dubbed “the doppelganger murder” by German media.
ALSO READ
The pursuit of a doppelganger
Authorities charged Sharaban this week with murder after prosecutors noted how she scoured Instagram in her quest to find a victim who would match her physical appearance. Speaking to the local outlet Bild, Attorney General Veronika Grieser said, “It has been confirmed that the accused had contacted several women via Instagram before the act who seemed to look similar to her. After the investigation, it can be assumed that the suspect wanted to go into hiding due to internal family disputes and faked her own death." Investigators believe Sharaban connected with Khadidja via Instagram sometime last summer and proceeded to lure the victim into meeting up by offering her a set of beauty products.
German woman Sharaban K. is accused of murdering her lookalike Khadijah O. she found on Instagram in an attempt to fake her own death.
— GistReel.Com (@GistReel) February 1, 2023
Khadidja O. was brutally st@bbed more than 50 times, with her body left on the back seat of Sharaban K's Mercedes. pic.twitter.com/pOEwF5W67g
Civtim was stabbed more than 50 times
Sharaban told her parents on the day of the crime that she was going to visit her ex-husband in Munich. However, she went to her boyfriend Sheqir instead and allegedly picked up Khadidja in a Mercedes. Investigators believe they took a turn into a forest at some point and stabbed the victim more than 50 times. As mentioned, the injuries were so severe that Khadidja couldn't be identified immediately.
Sharaban and Sheqir subsequently parked the Mercedes in a spot where it would be discovered easily, leaving the victim's body in the backseat. Authorities were shocked when they learned the victim was not in fact Sharaban as they originally suspected. After probing into her social media interactions, they found she had connected with several lookalikes. Investigators then theorized she had murdered one of the women to fake her own death.
TOP STORIES
Sharaban was eventually tracked down and arrested. She has now been officially charged with murder and faces life in prison if convicted. Meanwhile, Sheqir has also been charged as an accomplice and faced similar jail time, per the New York Post. “The murder weapon has still not been found but the burden of proof is overwhelming," police spokesperson Andreas Aichele told Bild, adding, “The victim was killed with more than 50 stab wounds and her face was badly injured. That was brutal in the extreme." Aichele continued, “It was an extraordinary case that required all the investigators’ skills. We don’t have a case like this every day, especially with such a spectacular twist. On the day we found the body, we did not expect it to develop like this.”