Double ‘played German opera singer's dead husband to steal fortune’

Police in Germany have arrested an opera singer who they say murdered her husband then used a double to get her hands on his money.

They say Waltraud Hills, 55, used a make-up artist to make the man resemble her husband. She went with him to a lawyer where the bogus Hermann Hills signed over the assets of the dead man, a 71-year-old wealthy fish farmer, to his wife.

Hills vanished from his home near Freiburg in October. But a local man told police he had been asked by Mrs Hills to impersonate her husband.

Eight more said she had approached them. One said: "She showed me a photo of this old geezer, said there would be a good drink in it for me' if I played him at a lawyer's office. I didn't want to get involved."