EUROPE 
Man hacked family to death 'to spare them shame'
Thursday, 15 May, 2008
Reinhard S's family apartment (Getty)
An Austrian man who hacked five members of his family to death with an axe told police he wanted to spare them the shame of his financial ruin.
Reinhard S, 39, walked into a police station in Vienna and calmly told officers he had killed his wife Barbara, 42, and seven-year-old daughter.
The pair were found dead, their bodies draped with cloth, at the family's apartment in an affluent district of the city - his daughter in a walk-in closet, and his wife in a bathroom.
Police discovered the remains of his parents and his elderly father-in-law at their homes in the Upper Austria region shortly afterwards.
'Massive money problems'
All five had been attacked with an axe, and letters were found beside the bodies, though police refused to comment on their contents.
"He is completely matter of fact... almost without emotion," said criminal investigator Thomas Stecher.
Police said the man, a self-employed public relations consultant, told them he had borrowed money from relatives, only to lose it in a series of business deals.
In interviews with officers, the man said he had "massive money problems", and was left owing a six-figure euro amount.
He is still being questioned by detectives, and has yet to be charged, but could face life in prison if charged and convicted for the killings, Gerhard Jarosch, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said.
Source: SBS staff and agencies
