Tatort "Krähen im Hof"

At the Corvidihof, a Viennese public housing complex, Horst Mayer is found dead in the courtyard after falling from his apartment window. While it’s immediately clear to investigators Charlotte “Charlie” Hahn and Alex Maleky that this cannot have been a suicide or an accident, the question of who would want to harm the poor man presents them with a difficult puzzle right from their first joint homicide case.

Horst’s ex-wife might have had a reason to seek revenge on him after he recently attempted to kidnap their seven-year-old daughter. Aside from that, upon closer inspection, it seems as though some of the residents haven’t fully internalized the basics of peaceful coexistence. Live and let live—apparently, that doesn’t apply in this case!

Alex and Charlie approach the investigation with a mix of forensic tenacity, systematic rigor, and gossip, gradually uncovering a series of disturbing facts. Some are simply tragic, such as the fact that the deceased was so lonely that he probably would have even welcomed real enemies. Other clues lead into the past, as some of the tenants are not exactly clean slates.