ANDRATX STABBING

A close German friend of the couple stumbled across the crime scene and raised the alarm at 10.30am. He had gone round to the 16 metre yacht SY Kandahar, where the couple had been living, which was moored in the small port in front of the Hotel Brismar.

Guardia Civil sources suspect they could be dealing with a crime of passion, but last night forensics were still combing the luxury sailing yacht while detectives were conducting local inquiries.

Muller was found with a serious stab wound to the neck, Silvia had also been slashed in the neck and wrists.
It appears that Muller and 55-year-old Silvia had been “a couple” for the past 12 years, but lately the relationship had fallen on rocky ground and they had broken up. According to the police, Silvia visited the yacht on Tuesday night to collect the last of her personal belongings. What happened between then and 10.30 yesterday morning remains a mystery. One of the theories detectives are considering is that late on Tuesday night, Silvia allegedly stabbed the 60-year-old German and then tried to take her own life.

However, police sources said they are not ruling out a double suicide or an argument which got out of hand.
Tragically it was the close friend who broke in to the cabin and found Gerth face-up, with a large wound in his neck, lying in a pool of blood on one of the bunks and Silvia, seriously injured and only just conscious near his side. An Andratx doctor and a 061 ambulance team rushed to the scene where paramedics managed to stop Silvia bleeding from her neck and wrist wounds before taking her to Son Dureta hospital in Palma. The body of Gerth Muller, who had lived on the yacht in the port for the past three years and used to operate tourist charters, was finally lifted off the vessel at 2pm after a coroner had inspected the scene.

The autopsy results are expected today.