Naperville woman pushed down steep slope to her death at German tourist site

BERLIN — Police in southern Germany are appealing for photos and videos taken by witnesses of an attack Thursday near a popular tourist site in which an American man is accused of killing a Naperville woman and injuring another Illinois woman by pushing them down a steep slope.

The Daily Mail reports Eva Liu, 21, of Naperville was killed in the attack by Neuschwanstein castle, and Kelsey Chang, 22, of Bloomington, was injured. A suspect has been arrested.

Both women graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign last month and the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, in 2019.

According to the initial police investigation, the suspect met the two women on a hiking path and lured them onto a trail that leads to a viewpoint.

“The younger of the two women was attacked by the suspect,” police spokesman Holger Stabik said. “The older one tried to rush to her aid, was then choked by the suspect and subsequently pushed down a slope.”

The assailant then appears to have attempted to sexually assault Liu before pushing her down the slope as well, prosecutors said. She fell nearly 165 feet.

Both women were recovered by mountain rescuers. Liu was flown to a hospital with serious injuries and later died. Chang was “responsive” in the hospital, police said; the Mail reported that she was expected to be discharged Friday.

The suspect left the scene but was quickly arrested nearby. Police said a judge in nearby Kempten on Thursday ordered the suspect held pending a potential indictment — a process that can take months — and he was taken to jail. He remains in custody on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, prosecutors said, adding it wasn't clear how long he had been in the country.

Bystander video posted online showed police leading away a handcuffed man in a T-shirt, jeans and a baseball cap. Authorities have not identified him; it's said to be standard practice in Germany for police not to upon arrest.

A spokesman for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said Liu received a bachelor's degree in computer science in May, and Chang received a degree in computer engineering.

“Our University of Illinois family is mourning the senseless death of Ms. Liu and the attack on Ms. Chang,” said Robin Kaler, associate chancellor. “Both had just graduated in May and should have been able to celebrate such an important accomplishment without the fear of such a tragic outcome. Our thoughts are with Ms. Chang as she recovers and with both of their families as they grieve.”

Tami Armstrong, chief public affairs officer for the Illinois Math and Science Academy, said Liu was “a dedicated, academically talented and involved student” who was a member of the student planning committee for the 2018 International Student Science Fair held on campus. Liu also was “an adept student researcher” who participated in IMSA's Student Inquiry and Research program.

“On behalf of our administration, faculty and staff, we are saddened by this loss and we grieve for and with her family and loved ones,” Armstron said. “The loss of any student, particularly in such a tragic way, deeply hurts us all.”

Liu posted on LinkedIn that she about to start a job as a software engineer at Microsoft, where she had interned. She also had interned at Optum, part of United Health Group, in Schaumburg, as well as M1 in Chicago and Caterpillar in Peoria.

German news agency dpa quoted police as saying Friday that they have so far received about a dozen submissions of pictures or video from the scene on a specially created website, but assume many more were taken by tourists at the site.

“We are looking for photographs which, by chance, show two young women and a man (approx. 30 years old) who were staying east of the Marienbruecke,” Kempten police said on their website. “These persons may have been walking together or separately.”

Eric Abneri, a recent business graduate from the University of Pittsburgh who took the video of the arrest, said the suspect appeared to have scratches across his face.

“He did not say a single word. He didn't open his mouth; he didn't mumble,” Abneri told The Associated Press. “He just walked with the police and that was it.”

Abneri said he and friends reached the scenic overlook as a helicopter arrived and they saw rescuers lower themselves down to the victims.

“I'm honestly absolutely stunned someone is still alive from this. It is like falling from the top of an absolute cliff,” he said.

Abneri described it as “a very, very difficult rescue because of those cliffs and because the helicopter came mere feet above the tree line at the top of the hill.”

“They did an unbelievable job,” he said.

The Marienbruecke, or Mary's Bridge, is a popular vantage point for photos of Neuschwanstein, the most famous of the castles built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 19th century.

The U.S. Embassy in Berlin said it was aware of the incident and the consulate in Munich was in contact with authorities.

“Due to privacy considerations, we are unable to comment further at this time,” the embassy said in a statement.

• Daily Herald staff writers Susan Sarkauskas and Alicia Fabbre contributed to this report.