The attack on Ms Siliya Rothert is being treated by police as a murder, probably with a personal motive given its vicious and frenzied nature. Officers have ruled out a botched robbery. They are trying to track down the killer who fled the scene before the alarm was raised by workers at a nearby hotel in the Schoneberg area of Berlin after passers-by stumbled on the body.
A 61-year-old Thai woman who had made a life for herself in Germany was cut down in the early hours of Friday morning in a brutally violent murder which is being investigated by a Berlin Police murder squad who are pursuing her attacker, seen taking flight from the scene. Ms Siliya Rothert is understood to have died after being ‘glassed’ with a bottle by her crazed attacker in a particularly brutal and violent assault. The incident has left the vibrant Thai community in the German capital in a state of shock and fear.
Police in Berlin are actively tracking the murderer of a Thai woman whose body was found in the Schoneberg area of the city in the early hours of Friday morning.
She had been fatally attacked with a glass bottle and left in a pool of her own blood.
The alarm was raised by people in the area on Fuggerstrasse near a well-known hotel by passers-by who came across the body of Ms Siliya Rothert, a Thai woman who moved to live in Germany 20 years ago, marrying a German man and establishing herself as a successful businesswoman.
A well-loved and active figure in the vibrant Thai German community in Berlin and Germany
Ms Rothert was well thought of within the active Thai community in the German capital.
Police over the weekend confirmed that they were treating her death as murder with the attack appearing to be personally motivated as opposed to a robbery.
The dead woman’s handbag was found covered in blood near her body with expensive belongings left untouched, indicating that the attack was not a botched robbery.
Employees of a nearby Hotel on Fuggerstrasse in Schoneberg alerted police at 12.45 am on Friday morning when they were directed to the dead woman’s body in a passage near the hotel, just some distance from Ms Siliya’s residence in the German city, by passers-by.
Appalling sight for police and rescue workers
It is reported that officials, including police officers and emergency services who arrived at the scene, were treated to an appalling vista with the woman having suffered extensive injuries from a broken glass bottle.
The area was covered with the dead woman’s blood.
The nature of the attack on the Thai woman was one often referred to as ‘glassing’ in the English world, with the attacker using a glass bottle, an extremely violent act which can leave its victim with appalling injuries, particularly when used against the head or neck area.
Police took a broken glass bottle found at the bloodied scene and are forensically examining it. However, they have been slow to confirm it as the murder weapon in the case.
Ms Siliya’s body was removed from the scene after police investigators and forensic experts were finished on Friday morning.
Murdered Thai woman is from the northern province of Sukhothai and had lived in Germany for 20 years
The murdered Thai woman hails from Sukhothai province in lower northern Thailand and was a well-known character in the active Thai-German community in Berlin where she was known as ‘Kung Yentafo’ for her skill at cooking and hospitality.
The 61-year-old had built up a successful Thai noodle shop operated in the Charlottenburg area of Berlin on Kantstrasse known as ‘Thai Art’.
Is understood that Ms Siliya had several children including a son and a daughter with personnel at the Royal Thai Embassy in Lepsiusstrasse, Berlin, currently dealing with a problem linked to a visa issue for her daughter to travel between the two countries.
Ms Rothert’s maiden name was Siliya Saiwongpanya.
Thai Germans shocked and saddened by the cowardly killing of Ms Siliya who was known as ‘Kung Yentafo’
Her murder over the weekend has left the Thai community in Berlin and wider Germany shocked with outpourings online among a close-knit population.
Pictures of the woman known affectionately as ‘Kung Yentafo’ showed her attending various gatherings and handing out food that she had cooked herself.
On Sunday, German police, in an update on the investigation, would only confirm that they were treating it as a murder and were actively trying to track down the assailant.
Investigators have not yet identified the attacker who they understand quickly fled the scene.
Officers, at this point, are working on the theory that the murder of the 61-year-old woman may be linked to personal estrangement or a relationship breakdown of some sort.
Royal Thai Embassy in Berlin issues warning to Thai residents in the German capital after the murder
The Royal Thai Embassy in Berlin, at the same time, has taken the precaution of issuing a warning on its website alerting Thai nationals to the murder of Ms Siliya although her name was not included in the notice.
It is also reported that the embassy is liaising with the family who have announced funeral arrangements for Ms Rothert over the weekend culminating on Monday, August 21st, although a date for cremation has not been set yet, at the Buddhist temple in Berlin.
The Thai embassy has also expressed its condolences to the relatives of the woman whose life and achievements in Germany were cut short by a brutal and cowardly criminal act in the early hours of Friday morning.
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Further reading:
Thai woman’s attacker appears before New York court charged with robbery and assault last year
UK beauty spot may have disguised the grim murder of a Thai bride from Udon Thani for over a decade
