German murder suspect detained with 'macabre' tattoo

Spanish police arrested a German man on Sunday who allegedly murdered his 20-year-old girlfriend in the southeastern Bavarian town of Freyung. The man was wanted for the murder and also for taking the couple's 18-month old son.

Authorities caught up with the suspect at a block of apartments in the seaside town of Lloret de Mar, located around 70 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Barcelona, police said in a statement. They were able to retrieve the toddler, who was unharmed.

Police reported that the man recently received a "macabre" tattoo on his upper arm. The freshly-inked tattoo contained his deceased girlfriend's name, the date of her birth and the suspected date of her murder - "27/10/2016."

The date was accompanied by a cross and the words "Thank you for everything" in Spanish.

The 22-year-old suspect had been on the run since German police found the body of his girlfriend, whose throat had been slit, inside plastic bags in the couple's apartment in Freyung at the end of October.

After the murder, the man texted his friends a picture of himself and his son from France, telling them he wanted to take a short vacation before turning himself in.

He is also suspected of using his deceased girlfriend's cell phone to update her social media profiles to throw off investigators. The suspect's extradition from Spain is expected to take a few weeks.

The toddler is now in a Spanish juvenile welfare home until German social services staff come to Spain to pick him up.

Bavarian police expressed relief during a press conference that the child was retrieved unharmed.

"The safety of the child has always been a top priority for us," said a police spokesman on Sunday.

rs/bw (AFP, dpa)