A woman killed her lookalike to fake her own death. When she was sentenced to prison, nobody told the victim's family.

• A woman in Germany was sentenced to life for murdering her doppelgänger in 2022.
• The victim's family in Algeria found out about the verdict three weeks later.
• They say they were kept in the dark through the ordeal.

A woman and her male accomplice were sentenced to life in prison following an 11-month murder trial in Germany that sparked headlines across the world.

The case ended with their convictions for the August 2022 murder of the victim, described as her killer's doppelgänger.

But the family of Khadidja O., the victim, say they were kept in the dark while they were hundreds of miles away in Algeria.

"We didn't know anything," Khadidja's younger sister, Ahlem Boudjemaâ, told Business Insider of the trial.

She learned about the verdict only from BI's reporter getting in touch three weeks after the sentencing.

A language barrier and complex family dynamics contributed to German authorities falling short of their aim to communicate with the murder victim's relatives overseas.

The 'doppelgänger murder'

Khadidja, a 23-year-old beauty influencer who was living in Heilbronn, Germany, was killed two-and-a-half years ago.

While her father was part of the prosecution of her murder, the family she kept in touch with in Algeria found themselves shut out of the case.

Prosecutors said Khadidja was tracked down on Instagram by a woman who looked like her in a plot to fake her own death.

They said a 25-year-old Iraqi-German woman, identified only as Shahraban K., orchestrated the murder.

(In Germany, it is customary to refer to victims and defendants only by their first names and an initial.)

Prosecutors said that, along with an accomplice identified as Sheqir K., she lured Khadidja into a trap by pretending to offer her a free cosmetic treatment.

For a time, authorities indeed believed Shahraban was the one who died.

In August 2022, police discovered a bloodied body with dozens of stab wounds and initially identified it as hers.

However, an autopsy later revealed the body to be that of Khadidja, who police said bore a "striking resemblance" to Shahraban.

This discovery led to Shahraban and, later, Sheqir being named as suspects in the murder. The killing gripped the media, becoming widely known as the "doppelgänger murder."

Mid-way through the trial, prosecutors alleged that Shahraban previously tried to hire someone to murder a relative.

Both defendants were ultimately found guilty of murder, with Shahraban also facing an additional conviction of attempted incitement to murder her brother-in-law.

Thomas Schlappa, a press officer for Ingolstadt's regional court, confirmed that the two defendants were sentenced to life behind bars on December 19.

He said that Shahraban's case was deemed so severe that probation is "not an option."

Left in the dark

The victim's father, who lives in Germany and has had no contact with the Algerian family since a contentious divorce, was represented in court.

The rest of Khadidja's family in Oran, Algeria, had no legal representation and received little information throughout the trial.

They said they only learned about the verdict on January 8, 2025, nearly three weeks later, after Business Insider messaged them.

"I don't know why they did this to us," Boudjemaâ, the younger sister, told BI of the German authorities, who had earlier said the relatives deserved access to that information.

Nonetheless, Khadidja's Algerian family felt consistently left in the dark through the trial.

"I waited every day for news, but nothing was new," Boudjemaâ said.

From the offset, they had felt sidelined — they say even the news of Khadidja's death took 10 days to reach them.

Boudjemaâ says she was contacted by Khadidja's friends on social media, and had to relay the news to her mother.

(Ingolstadt state prosecutor's office disputes this, saying files show that the family in Algeria was informed of the murder.)

The mother, Bouch, told BI last July that she felt German authorities had done little to help her. She said they gave an email address which turned out to be incorrect.

Frustrated by the lack of information, Bouch, who is disabled after a brain hemorrhage several years ago, went on a fact-finding mission to Germany herself but learned little.

Veronika Grieser of the Ingolstadt state prosecutor's office characterized the lack of communication as a misunderstanding in statements to BI at the time.

She said the state prosecutor's office generally seeks to provide information on significant developments in a trial when relatives inquire.

"We very much regret that the victim's mother feels inadequately informed by the authorities," she said. "Of course, the victim's relatives have a right to information about the status of the proceedings and, of course, about the dates of the main hearing."

This week, the state prosecutor's office said that nobody from the Algerian family had contacted their office.

Schlappa of Ingolstadt's regional court told BI in an email that the outcome of the proceedings had been shared in a press release and appeared to suggest that the Algerian family was excluded due to their lack of legal representation.

"The victim's father was a co-plaintiff in the main hearing and was represented by a lawyer appointed by the court," he said. "To what extent the father has or had contact with any relatives in Algeria is not known here."

Once news of the sentencing reached Algeria, Boudjemaâ's reaction to the sentencing was conflicted.

"I don't know if there is justice," she said. "My sister is dead, she is gone, and she will not return."