Mortal Danger

men. Crazy strength, as he was determined to destroy Amy if she wouldn’t go with him.
    Finally, Amy and Jill had been helped to their feet and walked over to the curb, where passersby tried to comfort them. He was unaware that his sisters were grievously injured.
    “I talked to Amy but she didn’t respond, although her eyes were open.”
    Dave Hart interviewed Jill at Valley General Hospital as she awaited surgery. The brave woman knew Amy was dead, but she had tried with all her might to save her. She told Hart that, as soon as their brother was inside, Jager had tried to drag Amy back into the car. He had reached into the bag he had grabbed from their brother.
    “He pulled out a long silver knife. He knew exactly where it was. He was sort of standing alongside Amy and holding her with one hand. He stabbed her in the stomach. We both started to scream. I grabbed for the knife with my left hand and held on as hard as I could. He moved the knife back and forth to get it out of my grasp—”
    Jill had clamped her bare hand around the razor-sharp blade to try to save Amy, and Jager had deliberately slicedthe tendons in her hand in his frenzy to kill the woman he professed to love.
    Detective Dave Hart found the red zipper bag in the back of the Fiat wagon. A black leather knife sheath stood upright in the bag. Jager had only to reach in and pull out the knife. He had to have planned that ahead of time, a last-ditch effort if his pleading didn’t convince Amy to leave with him.
    Booked into the King County Jail, Heinz Jager was provided with interpreters from the Seattle Language Bank to inform him once again of his Miranda rights and to ask him questions. He refused to talk to the police or anyone else—he said his attorney was in Switzerland. He whined, however, that he’d been injured by the bystanders who had pulled him off of his dying wife and complained that the jail doctors would not treat his injuries properly.
    In truth, Jager had been taken to a hospital for treatment of his scratches and bruises, which were minor. He insisted that he wasn’t satisfied with the treatment he’d received and complained, “Someone kicked me in the ribs at the airport.” He also said that he was hungry and hadn’t been given anything to eat.
    When he was asked about Amy, he said, “ Who is dead? Is she dead? I don’t know if she is dead. I had the knife in my hand. I stabbed blindly. I don’t know how many times. I was blind with rage. I took my knife and hit her many times. Is my wife dead?”
    Amy was, of course, dead. And Jill was undergoing four hours of surgery to repair her injured hand. Their whole family was in despair because all of their efforts to protect their beloved Amy had failed.
    Amy Jager’s autopsy showed that she had suffered eight stab wounds, one of which had perforated her liver and left lung. She had died from massive internal bleeding. For all intents and purposes, the slender teacher who had flown across the world to save herself from just such a fate was dead from the moment of the first vicious knife thrust. Even if paramedics had been there seconds later, they probably couldn’t have saved her from bleeding to death.
     
    After examining Heinz Jager, psychiatrists declared him mentally fit to stand trial. His trial began in late October 1976. Doug Whalley and Janet George, deputy King County prosecutors, would speak for the State; Carl Hultman, the public defender, would represent Jager.
    Through an interpreter, Jager was made fully aware of all the testimony given.
    Hultman pointed out that Jager had had a disturbed childhood; that he had been abused and had a history of mental problems. He claimed that Jager was abnormal at times and couldn’t stand stressful situations created by problems with women.
    The handsome Swiss had once told a psychiatrist that his wife was his possession, that she belonged to him, and that if he could not have her, no one else ever would either.
    Defense attorney Hultman explained to the eight-man, four-woman jury that his client was totally dependent upon maintaining the relationships he had started with women.There was no argument about his obsessions. Hultman said that Jager always behaved strangely when he feared those relationships were threatened.
    There was no question that he was a stalker, following his love object, spying, and then falsely accusing the woman of being unfaithful until the relationship fell apart.
    His first marriage had ended