Hobby hunter rigs death trap for mountain bikers: charge is murder

From Monday, 22 June 2026, a 60-year-old hobby hunter must answer before the Heilbronn Regional Court for allegedly repeatedly stretching wire cables across a mountain bike trail in the summer of 2024.

The public prosecutor is bringing charges of attempted murder.

The crime scene lies in the woods between Weinsberg and Eberstadt (Baden-Württemberg), on the so-called «Dachstrail», a route popular with mountain bikers. According to the indictment, on which the Stuttgarter Nachrichten reported as the original source on 17 June 2026, the accused is alleged to have stretched wire cables across the trail several times between mid-June and mid-August 2024. The aim: to drive mountain bikers out of his hunting ground.

Sturdier cable after failed attempts

According to the indictment, the fact that, after initial failed attempts, the accused reached for a considerably sturdier wire cable is particularly incriminating for him. The public prosecutor regards this as evidence of deliberate, planned action. In the event of a collision, massive cut wounds and serious fall injuries would have been expected. According to the Stuttgarter Nachrichten, the accused deliberately took fatal consequences into account.

The public prosecutor considers the murder element of treachery to be met: the cables were invisible to riders and exploited their unsuspecting and defenceless state. Fortunately, a mountain biker spotted the cable in time and removed it before anyone was harmed.

Six days of hearings, verdict expected at the end of July

The Heilbronn Regional Court has scheduled six days of hearings. Seventeen witnesses and five expert witnesses have been summoned. The verdict is to be announced at the end of July 2026.

Proving the characteristics of murder is likely to be the decisive hurdle in the trial. In comparable cases, courts frequently downgrade such charges to attempted manslaughter. As early as August 2024, the Heilbronn criminal police had, in another case, arrested a 59-year-old suspect from Hardthausen who was likewise accused of stringing wires across mountain bike trails; the Heilbronn district court issued an arrest warrant at the time for attempted murder (Pirsch, August 2024). The current trial is therefore not an isolated case, not even in the Heilbronn area.

A pattern of territorial violence

In Austria, a 47-year-old hobby hunter from the Braunau district stood trial at the regional court of Ried back in 2018 for attempted grievous bodily harm: he had strung a millimetre-thin steel wire cable at head height across a forest path in order to banish mountain bikers and motocross riders from his hunting ground (OE24, July 2018). There, too, the cable was discovered only by chance.

The pattern is the same in all known cases: a section of the hobby hunting community treats the forest as private territory that must be defended against those seeking recreation, if necessary by means that accept the death of human beings. This self-image is not only morally unacceptable, it is also legally untenable.

What the law unequivocally stipulates

The German Federal Forest Act (BWaldG) states in § 14 that entering the forest for the purpose of recreation is permitted for all persons. A hunting lease contract grants no authority whatsoever to endanger third parties or to drive them off public land.

In Switzerland the same principle applies even more clearly: Article 14 of the Federal Act on Forests (WaG) explicitly guarantees the right to enter the forest for recreation as a general right. Neither the federal hunting act (JSG) nor any cantonal hunting act grants hobby hunters any right to restrict this access. In licence hunting cantons, which make up around 65 per cent of the cantons in Switzerland, hobby hunters do not acquire any territorial responsibility in any case, and certainly no ownership right over forest areas.

Anyone who, as a hobby hunter in Switzerland, endangers forest users with traps or wire cables commits an offence under the Swiss Criminal Code of grievous bodily harm (Art. 122 SCC), and, where intent to kill is proven, of attempted manslaughter (Art. 111 SCC) or attempted murder (Art. 112 SCC).

The “wildlife tranquillity” narrative is lobbying, not ecology

As the motive in the current case, the indictment states that the accused wanted to prevent mountain bikers from disturbing the game in his hunting ground. This narrative deserves a clear assessment: there is no scientific evidence that recreational use causes lasting harm to the wildlife population of a hunting ground. What is decisive for wildlife populations is habitat quality, food availability and hunting pressure, not the occasional passing of a mountain biker.

The “hunting-ground tranquillity” argument is a hunting-policy instrument that hunting associations and organised hobby hunters actively use in order to effectively privatise public forest areas. In the Heilbronn case, this thinking led to a potentially fatal consequence. Should the trial end in a final conviction for attempted murder, it would be an important signal that the forest belongs to everyone.

More background on the relationship between hobby hunting and public space: Wildbeimwild.com – Hunting Critique Dossier

All reporting on offences and assaults by hobby hunters: Wildbeimwild.com – Hunting Critique: Violence and Law