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Solved case · 1982
Also known as Kalinka Bamberski case
The short answer
Kalinka Bamberski, 14, died in July 1982 at stepfather Dieter Krombach's home in Lindau, Germany, after he admitted injecting her that night; following a decades-long legal fight across Germany and France, including Krombach's 2009 abduction to French custody, he was convicted in 2011 of causing her unintentional death and sentenced to 15 years, a verdict the European Court of Human Rights upheld in 2018.
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Suggest coverage for Killing of Kalinka BamberskiThe case file
Kalinka Bamberski, a 14-year-old French girl, died on the night of 9 July 1982 at the home of her mother, Danièle Gonnin, and stepfather, Dieter Krombach, a German physician and cardiologist, in Lindau, Germany. Krombach later said that after dinner that evening he injected Kalinka with Kobalt-Ferrlecit, a cobalt-iron preparation he said he used on family members and friends; his stated reason for the injection changed over time, from aiding tanning to treating anemia. He said he told her to turn off her bedroom light at midnight, found her dead the next morning, administered further injections in an attempt to revive her, and then called emergency services.
An autopsy conducted two days later could not establish a cause of death. It documented aspirated stomach contents in Kalinka's airway and lungs, several injection marks, undigested food in her stomach, and genital injuries, including a superficial vaginal tear that examiners judged to have occurred after death; a whitish substance found in her vagina was never tested, and her genitals were removed during the autopsy and have never been recovered. German prosecutors initially declined to open a case. Kalinka's father, André Bamberski, obtained a copy of the autopsy report and pushed for further investigation. German medical experts later concluded that the timeline Krombach had described was inconsistent with the physical evidence and that an injection given right after dinner had more likely caused her death. In 1987, the Higher Regional Court in Munich ruled there was insufficient evidence that Krombach's injection had negligently or intentionally caused her death.
Bamberski continued to pursue the case in France. In 1995, Krombach was tried there in absentia and sentenced to 15 years in prison, but the European Court of Human Rights annulled that verdict in 2001 because Krombach had not been able to defend himself. Germany repeatedly declined to extradite Krombach, and in 2004 a German court ruled the matter closed. In the years between, Krombach was convicted in separate German cases unconnected to Kalinka's death: in 1997 he admitted drugging and raping a 16-year-old patient in his medical office, receiving a suspended sentence and losing his medical license, and in 2006 he was sentenced to prison for practicing medicine without a license.
Concerned that the statute of limitations would expire in 2012, Bamberski paid several men to abduct Krombach from Germany in October 2009; Krombach was beaten, suffering a fractured skull, and left near a police station in Mulhouse, France. Bamberski was soon arrested with the cash he had intended to pay the men and was released on bail. Krombach was tried again in France and, in October 2011, convicted of causing intentional bodily harm that resulted in Kalinka's unintentional death; prosecutors argued he had drugged her intending to rape her. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The conviction was upheld on appeal in 2012 and became final in 2014 after the Court of Cassation rejected further appeal. The European Court of Human Rights rejected Krombach's claim of double jeopardy in March 2018. He was released from prison in February 2020 for health reasons and died later that year. Bamberski was separately convicted of organizing the abduction and received a one-year suspended sentence.
19 dated entries · 1982–2020
Dieter Krombach later said that after dinner on the evening of 9 July 1982, at his home in Lindau, Germany, he injected his 14-year-old stepdaughter, Kalinka Bamberski, with Kobalt-Ferrlecit, a cobalt-iron preparation; he said he found her dead in her room the next morning and called emergency services.
An autopsy conducted two days after Kalinka's death could not establish a cause of death. It found aspirated stomach contents in her airway and lungs, several injection marks, and genital injuries, including a superficial vaginal tear judged to have occurred after death; her genitals were removed during the autopsy and have never been recovered.
André Bamberski distributed leaflets in Lindau accusing Krombach of the rape and murder of his daughter. Krombach sued him for defamation and won a judgment of 500,000 German marks, which Bamberski refused to pay.
Kalinka's body, which had been interred in Toulouse, was exhumed; her genitals could not be found, but a French medical evaluation found the original German toxicological analysis had been of poor quality.
The Higher Regional Court in Munich ruled there was insufficient evidence that Krombach's injection had negligently or intentionally caused Kalinka's death.
Krombach was tried in absentia in France and sentenced to 15 years in prison for intentionally inflicting bodily harm that caused Kalinka's unintentional death.
In a separate German case, Krombach admitted to drugging and raping a 16-year-old patient in his medical office; he received a two-year suspended sentence and lost his medical license.
A police officer recognized Krombach, from a photo distributed by Bamberski, on a train in western Austria and arrested him; he was released after three weeks when an Austrian judge ruled the French trial had been illegal.
The European Court of Human Rights annulled Krombach's 1995 French conviction, ruling that he had been denied the ability to defend himself, and awarded him compensation.
A German court declined a French request to extradite Krombach, ruling the case closed.
André Bamberski paid several men to abduct Krombach from his home in Scheidegg, Bavaria; Krombach was beaten, suffering a fractured skull, and left near a police station in Mulhouse, France. Bamberski was arrested soon after with the cash he had intended to pay the men and was released on bail.
Krombach was convicted in France of causing intentional bodily harm that resulted in Kalinka's unintentional death and sentenced to 15 years in prison; prosecutors argued he had drugged her intending to rape her.
Krombach's 2011 conviction was confirmed on appeal.
The Court of Cassation rejected Krombach's further appeal, making his conviction final.
André Bamberski was tried in France, on 22-23 May 2014, for organizing the 2009 abduction; he confessed to arranging it and received a one-year suspended jail sentence.
A court in Melun ordered Krombach's release from prison for health reasons, but a successful prosecution appeal kept him imprisoned.
The European Court of Human Rights rejected Krombach's claim that he had been prosecuted twice for the same crime, upholding his French conviction.
Krombach was released from prison for health reasons.
Krombach died in an old-age home in Germany.
3 named in this file
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
14-year-old French student; died on the night of 9 July 1982 at her stepfather's home in Lindau, Germany, after he injected her following dinner.[3]
Kalinka's father; convicted in France in May 2014 of organizing Krombach's 2009 abduction from Germany and given a one-year suspended sentence. This conviction concerns the abduction, not Kalinka's death.[3]
German physician and Kalinka's stepfather; convicted in October 2011 of causing intentional bodily harm that resulted in Kalinka's unintentional death and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The conviction was upheld on appeal, became final in 2014, and was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in 2018. An earlier, 1995 in-absentia French conviction had been annulled by the European Court of Human Rights in 2001.[3]
From the record
3 cited
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PressThe GuardianAccessed Jul 12, 2026
PressThe New York TimesAccessed Jul 12, 2026
EncyclopedicWikipediaAccessed Jul 12, 2026
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