3 found dead in a German hotel, impaled by crossbows. Then 2 more bodies were discovered.

By Alex Horton | The Washington Post

A hotel worker in southern Germany knocked on a door Saturday morning, and when the guests did not answer, the worker opened up the three-bedroom suite to find a grisly scene.

Three bodies, all pierced with crossbow bolts.

The triple murder has vexed authorities in Bavaria, and the trail has led hundreds of miles away to the city of Wittingen, in Lower Saxony, where police searched the apartment of a 30-year-old woman found dead in the hotel.

Two other dead women were found in Wittingen on Monday, Lower Bavaria police said in a statement, but they did not say whether the women were attacked with a crossbow. Their identities and connections to the victims in Passau, Bavaria, are unknown, police said.

The body of the 30-year-old woman was found on the floor of the hotel room, police said, and a 53-year-old man and 33-year-old woman were lying together on the bed. All three were German citizens.

The man and the woman were holding hands, The Associated Press reported. An unused crossbow was found in a bag inside the room, police said Monday. Two other crossbows were found Saturday.

Police have not shed any light on whether the killings in the two cities are connected or whether they have any leads.

“We assume that no other people were involved in the deaths of the three,” Lower Bavaria police spokesman Stefan Gaisbauer said, according to the AP. Autopsy reports are expected Tuesday.

It is difficult to obtain firearms in Germany, but anyone over 18 years old can legally buy a crossbow, the AP reported.

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The Washington Post’s Rick Noack in Berlin contributed to this report.