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Man kills wife and uses head to drown self

A day earlier, two suitcases containing the woman’s remains were found floating close to the lake’s shore near the town of Gmunden.

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The police believe the man strangled his wife, dismembered her body, and poured concrete into a mold containing her head to make a weight with which to drown himself.

Police and residents found the remains in central Austria nearby the coast of the Traunsee.

The woman’s head was found encased in a concrete block in one of the bags. He then put the concrete head in a bag, attached his hand to the bag, and jumped in the Traunsee lake, near Gmunden.

The man, 72, and his 71-year-old wife have not been named.

After extending the search, police divers found the man’s body at the bottom of Lake Traunsee, his body tied to several suitcases.

State Prosecutor Birgit Ahammer says they have not yet been identified.

Autopsies suggested that the woman was strangled between December 25 and January 1 and that the man drowned some time later.

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A motive has yet to be established, according to police, but said they would provide further details at a press conference on Wednesday.

A walker discovered the suitcase in Traunsee Lake in Upper Austria one of the country’s nine states