Thirteen years later, the "homeless man with the rabbit" was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of a young prostitute.

The Bas-Rhin Assize Court on Wednesday sentenced a 42-year-old man to twenty years in prison for the murder of an 18-year-old woman found dead in Strasbourg in 2013. The victim, a Bulgarian national who occasionally worked as a prostitute, was discovered several months after her disappearance in a tent set up near a highway.

The accused, Ludovic Burger, had eluded investigators for over a decade before being identified through videos posted on YouTube, where he recounted his unconventional life alongside his rabbit. The investigation quickly established his presence at the crime scene, as several of his personal belongings were found near the body.

A ten-year escape interrupted by the internet

At the hearing, the man admitted to tying up the young woman during a sadomasochistic sexual encounter, while maintaining that he did not intend to kill her. However, forensic examinations concluded that she died of asphyxiation. The prosecutor denounced the act as extremely violent and emphasized the defendant's lack of empathy during the proceedings.

The jury followed the prosecution's recommendations, imposing a sentence that also included fifteen years of post-release supervision with mandatory treatment. The psychiatric experts who testified at the trial described a man plagued by severe addictions and a cold, unstable personality, deeply marginalized since adolescence.