A 31-year-old American man has been charged with rape, murder and attempted murder after attacking two fellow US tourists near the Neuschwanstein castle in southern Germany, prosecutors said Thursday.
The suspect is accused of approaching the two women, 21 and 22, while they were hiking in June in the area in Bavaria near one of Germany's top tourist attractions and persuading them to follow him down a trail to a lookout point.
He then "forcibly brought the 21-year-old to the ground to undress her and perform sexual acts on her", the prosecutors in the town of Kempten said.
When her 22-year-old friend tried to intervene, the suspect allegedly pushed her down a steep slope, "in the knowledge that she may be fatally injured as a result".
The man is then accused of strangling the 21-year-old until she was unconscious and raping her.
He then also pushed her down the slope, where she came to rest some 50 metres (164 feet) below, the prosecutors said.
Police in June said that when mountain rescue workers found the two women, the 22-year-old was injured but able to talk.
The 21-year-old was seriously injured and taken by helicopter to hospital, where she died later that night.
In the course of the investigation, police seized mobile phones and a laptop belonging to the suspect that contained child pornography.
He has therefore also been charged with possession of child pornography, the prosecutors said.
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