81-year-old confesses to German cold case murder of US tourist in 1994

A man aged 82 is facing a life sentence in prison in Germany, after going on trial and admitting to a murder that mystified the city of Koblenz for almost 32 years.

Amy Lopez from Texas was last seen alive in September 1994, heading for Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz while on a tour of Europe.

Hans S, who was 49 at the time, was arrested at a retirement home in the area last February after a DNA trace found on Lopez's clothing was matched to saliva he had provided during a cold-case investigation.

His full name has not been revealed because of German privacy rules.

Prosecutors believe the attacker met Lopez by chance on the steep path to the fortress.

They accuse Hans S of luring her into a secluded area beneath the fortress, known as the General von Aster room after a 19th-Century Prussian general. He is then alleged to have sexually assaulted and stabbed Lopez nine times.

Prosecutors accuse him of murder and of "base motives to satisfy his sexual urges".

The court was packed for the first day of the trial on Tuesday, an indication of the notorious nature of the murder in the Koblenz area of western Germany.