The 23-year-old defendant in a murder trial researched deadly eye drops for months. Investigators found hidden cell phones and fake chats.
Göttingen – Digital media and artificial intelligence (AI) are playing an increasingly important role not only in everyday life, but also in criminal proceedings. This is exemplified by a trial that is currently taking place before the Göttingen Regional Court.
A 23-year-old teacher has been on trial there for murder since mid-December. The public prosecutor accuses her of killing a 15-year-old student in Reinhäuser Forest on the evening of June 29, 2025. While the “classic” forensics team was initially used to search for possible evidence after the body was found, an enormous amount of digital data was added as the investigation continued. During the evaluation, the members of the homicide squad also came across relatively new tools: The defendant had used a whole range of communication and research tools and also made various inquiries to ChatGBT that could be related to the crime.
Arrested a few days after the violence
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The 23-year-old was arrested a few days after the crime at her place of residence in the municipality of Gieboldehausen. As always, the presumption of innocence applies until a final conviction is made. During the arrest, the police also seized her cell phone. In the trial before the Göttingen regional court, a police officer called as a witness reported that the defendant had purchased the cell phone a few days before the crime. However, it was only set up on June 30th at 4 a.m., a few hours after the bloody crime in the Reinhäuser Forest. The investigators then searched the suspects’ home again – and found what they were looking for: two more cell phones were hidden in a video recorder, reported a chief detective.
ChatGPT can do that
ChatGPT is a text-based dialogue system from the US software company OpenAI, introduced in November 2022, with which users can communicate via text-based messages and images, similar to how they would communicate with a human on the Internet. With ChatGPT, laypeople worldwide were able to interact with artificial intelligence for the first time without having any computer knowledge. According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the powerful language model was trained with a variety of text documents. (bsc)
The investigators then combed through the many messages, chat histories, search queries and other digital traces that could be found from the 23-year-old on ChatGPT, Snapchat, Whatsapp, GoogleMaps and other applications. They also read the notes that were on their cell phone. Two weeks before the crime, the following note was saved there: “Look for a hiding place for my cell phones.”
Evaluation of large amounts of data
According to an investigator, when evaluating the extensive amounts of data, it emerged that the defendant had already asked ChatGBT about “eye drops and danger” three and a half months before the crime. She was then informed that the active ingredient contained in it would make you sleepy and dizzy when taken orally; higher dosages could lead to respiratory arrest and circulatory failure. In mid-June, she then asked the chatbot whether eye drops from a certain brand contained the corresponding active ingredient, the police officer reported. She also asked what amount would be fatal in adults and what the effects would be if they were 1.69 m tall and weighed 66 kilos. On the same day she ordered two packages of eye drops online, which were delivered on June 20th.
During the course of the investigation, evidence was also found of further suspected attempts at deception by the defendants. For example, the defendant is said to have used several apps that can be used to create fake chats and messages. She also asked ChatGBT how to read other WhatsApp accounts without the person noticing, an official reported. After the crime, she tried to use Snapchat’s AI tool to find out how to remove DNA traces from upholstery.
Interview with former classmates
A police officer also interviewed the 23-year-old’s former classmates. Each of them had a story to tell about the defendant, he reported. All stories had “to do with lies or manipulative behavior.” The trial will continue next week.
