What happened in Berlin in 2012?
A series of murders took place in the gay nightlife scene in Berlin in 2012, with men being drugged, robbed and murdered. The killer was dubbed the “Darkroom Killer” even though only one of the murders took place in the darkroom of a Berlin gay club.
All three victims were drugged with GHB, which is also known as liquid ecstasy. The first victim, Alexander, was found dead at his apartment, with his phone and wallet gone. The second man was found dead at a club called Grosse Freiheit 114, in April 2012. The police were initially unable to identify his body, but he was eventually identified as 32-year-old Nicky Miller.
The third victim was a man called Peter, who was murdered in his apartment 11 days after the second killing. On this occasion, the victim had met the killer in an online chatroom, and they were texting shortly before the murder took place.
Were there any survivors?
A man called Miroslaw Wawak survived an attack on him by the same perpetrator. He was approached by the killer while waiting for a train after a night out, he was offered a drink. However, he passed out and woke up in a hospital, with his money having been stolen.
Wawak features in the new Netflix true crime series, Crime Scene Berlin: Nightlife Killer, and he recounts his awful experience on the night he was drugged and nearly died. He said he felt lucky to be alive after hearing about the other victims in the case.
Who was the Darkroom killer?
The killer was eventually identified as a 39-year-old man with the alias Dirk P. He was a trainee teacher at an elementary school in Brandenburg, and he had no prior convictions for any crimes. The police tracked him down after he attempted to buy a train ticket using a credit card he stole from one of the victims.
Dirk P. had previously trained as a nurse, which explained his knowledge of the GHB drug he used to kill his victims. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2013, with the judge Peter Schuster suggesting greed was the primary motive. He accepted that Dirk P. had also wanted to feel total power over others.
In 2014, Dirk P. committed suicide in prison.
What do you think about the case of the Darkroom Killer? Have you seen Netflix’s Crime Scene: Berlin? Let us know in the comments below.