Femicide by hobby hunter again: 90-year-old kills wife

On Wednesday lunchtime, 19 August 2026, at around 12.20 pm, the police were called to a house in Hepstedt following the sound of gunshots — a municipality of around 1,000 inhabitants in the Samtgemeinde of Tarmstedt in the Lower Saxon district of Rotenburg (Wümme). The emergency services found two lifeless persons inside the house: a 90-year-old man and his 65-year-old wife.

According to the current state of the investigation, the police assume that the man first killed his wife with a firearm and then turned the weapon on himself. As police spokesman Marvin Teschke confirmed the following day, the fatal shots came from a large-calibre hunting weapon, a repeating rifle. As early as the day of the crime, word in the village was that the suspected shooter had been a hobby hunter.

Cries for help before the shots

A local resident reported that cries for help could reportedly be heard from the house before the shots were fired. Neighbours then alerted the police, who arrived with five vehicles as well as an ambulance with an emergency doctor. Emergency pastoral care was also called in.

According to the investigating authorities, there is no indication that other persons were involved. No further persons were in the house at the time of the crime. A farewell note that might explain a possible motive has not been found so far. Investigations into the background of the crime and the exact course of events are ongoing.

The mayor of the Samtgemeinde Tarmstedt, Heidi Stelljes, was visibly affected: «The whole village is at a standstill,» she said, everyone was «in a state of shock.» The news had spread quickly through the 1,000-inhabitant village, and people were stunned and saddened.

Demand: ban hobby hunting following the Geneva model

The Hepstedt case shows once again: the violence that is trained and normalised in the context of hobby hunting does not stay in the forest. Anyone who routinely practises the use of deadly firearms against non-human animals also has these weapons, and the readiness to use them, close at hand in the domestic environment. IG Wild beim Wild therefore demands a general ban on hobby hunting.

The canton of Geneva serves as a model, having already abolished hobby hunting in 1974 and since then delegating wildlife management to state game wardens. The Geneva model shows that functioning, ethically defensible wildlife management is possible without private, uncontrolled use of firearms, and without the associated risks to people and animals.

Femicides by hobby hunters: a recurring pattern

The Hepstedt case is not an isolated incident but joins a long list of femicides in which legally owned hunting weapons became a deadly threat to wives and partners. IG Wild beim Wild has been systematically documenting such cases for years in the section Crime & Hunting:

• July 2026, Faido/Leontica (Ticino): A hobby hunter shot his ex-wife, presumably using a silencer, and then blew up a house, see «Faido/Leontica: Hobby Hunter, No Isolated Case in Ticino».
• March 2026, Reutlingen/Pfullingen: A hobby hunter killed his wife and two adult sons before taking his own life, see «Hobby Hunter in Terminal Stage Again Kills 4 People».
• 2023, Oldenburg in Holstein: A 73-year-old hobby hunter shot his 58-year-old wife in the open street, see «Hobby Hunter Shoots a Wife Again».
• 2017, Olpe district and Gemeinlebarn: In the 2017 annual documentation alone, there are several cases in which hobby hunters shot their wives, see «Germany: Over 30 Dead by Hunters in 2017».

Also striking in the Hepstedt case is the advanced age of the alleged perpetrator. The largest age group among hobby hunters in Germany are those over 65, a group that is disproportionately affected by age-, vision-, concentration- and reaction-related impairments. A mandatory medical-psychological aptitude test for hobby hunters, such as exists in the Netherlands, as well as an upper age limit for gun ownership, do not yet exist in Germany.