Details of bank heir death disclosed

Flowers and candles have been left at Jakob's home

The 11-year-old German banking heir killed by a kidnapper was probably strangled or drowned, police said on Wednesday.

Jakob von Metzler was found dead in a lake near Frankfurt on Monday.

A 27-year-old law student, named by his lawyer as Magnus Gaefgen, has been charged with Jakob's abduction and murder.

Jakob vanished on Friday on his way home from school

Police have confirmed that they believe Jakob was already dead by the time his parents handed over a one-million-euro ($980,000) ransom on Monday.

"It has been determined that Jakob's death likely took place on Friday or Saturday last week," said Frankfurt prosecutor Rainer Schilling in a statement on Wednesday.

Choking or drowning appeared to be the cause of death, as the nearly-naked body showed signs of neck injuries, he said.

Mr Schilling said the entire ransom sum had been discovered in the suspect's flat in Frankfurt.

Tributes

Police say they believe the suspect was able to lure Jakob away because he was an acquaintance of the von Metzler family.

German media reports said the man worked as a tutor for the family.

Jakob's parents are well-known on the Frankfurt arts scene

Neighbours have been leaving bunches of flowers outside the family's home, as shock and distress at the killing was felt across the city and elsewhere in Germany.

Police revealed news of the kidnapping on Monday following the unsuccessful payment of the ransom.

The little boy's body was eventually found in a lake about 60 kilometres (38 miles) north-east of Frankfurt, following information from the suspect.

If the arrested man is convicted, he faces a term of life imprisonment.

The killing provoked a shocked response from the German media.

Blackout

"The truth is so appalling, so gruesome," said the mass-circulation tabloid Bild.

"Jakob knew his tormentor," read the headline in the Berliner Zeitung.

"His whole family knew the presumed kidnapper and murderer and trusted him!" said Bild. "How must they be feeling now?"

The Berliner Morgenpost highlighted the "terrible trauma for Jakob's parents".

I can't tell you of the dismay of the other children that the 27-year-old had tried to befriend them

Police spokesman

A list of other high-profile kidnappings appeared in several papers.

"Wealthy families are again and again targets for kidnappers," said Berlin's Tagesspiegel.

Jakob was last seen on Friday morning getting off a bus home from school in the Sachsenhausen area of Frankfurt.

A ransom note was sent to the family about an hour later, promising the boy would be freed unharmed if they paid.

Lake search

As a news blackout was observed over the weekend, police waited for the suspect to pick up the ransom and followed him to his home when he did so.

Thousands of euros, believed to be part of the ransom, were found in his apartment on Monday.

Police teams initially searched around a lake just south of Frankfurt but switched to a second location on Tuesday, where the body was found wrapped in rags under a dock.

Confirming that the suspect had tried to befriend Jakob's 17-year-old brother and 16-year-old sister, police chief Harald Weiss-Bollandt said: "I can't tell you of the dismay of the other children that the 27-year-old had tried to befriend them."

The Metzler bank, founded in 1674, is one of Germany's oldest private financial institutions.

It has passed through 11 generations of the family, and has offices in Munich, Stuttgart, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo and Dublin.