On December 2, 2015, Horst Kerner, a 53-year-old IT worker from the small town of Friedberg, Germany, boarded a plane to Thailand for what seemed like an ordinary solo vacation. But behind this trip was a dark secret that would soon come to light.

Just two days earlier, in the de@d of night, he had attacked his sleeping wife, 37-year-old Grace Guzmana, in a de@dly assault that would mark the beginning of a calculated and disturbing crime — one that would leave the entire nation in shock.

This is the story of a man whose personal obsessions and deep-seated anger led him to commit an act of unimaginable brutality, all so he wouldn’t have to cancel his flight.

Horst Kerner described his childhood as lonely and miserable, an upbringing he would later blame for his violent actions. He struggled in his professional life, frequently changing jobs and feeling bullied at work. His one obsession, his escape, was Southeast Asian women, particularly from the Philippines and Thailand.

After two failed marriages to women he met through dating agencies and online ads, he met Grace Guzmana, a Filipina, on the internet. They married in March 2005, and Grace moved to Germany, doing everything she could to build a new life. She learned German, found a job at a supermarket, and was described by everyone who knew her as kind, friendly, and hardworking.

To the outside world, their marriage seemed stable. But behind closed doors, it was built on a lie. For Horst, Grace was not a partner, but someone expected to serve his needs: to cook his meals, wash his clothes, and cater to his personal expectations. He was a diagnosed narcissist, prone to mood swings, and deeply self-centered.

His real passion was the internet, where he spent hours searching for and talking to other women, seeking constant validation online. He admitted that whenever he felt stressed, he would retreat into this virtual world, a space where he could always feel admired and in control.

His obsession with Thailand was particularly strong. He had taken solo “vacations” there before, in 2007 and again in 2013, to pursue illicit relationships. The second trip was especially deceitful; he went while Grace was back in the Philippines mourning the death of her mother. It was during this time that Grace discovered the true extent of his online affairs. The marriage was falling apart.

In the autumn of 2015, Horst planned another solo trip to Thailand. This time, Grace had had enough. She gave him a firm ultimatum: if he went to Thailand again to be with other women, she would file for divorce. For Horst, this was not just an emotional threat; it was a financial one.

He was already struggling with money, had previously filed for bankruptcy, and was finding it difficult to support the children from his past marriages. A divorce would ruin him. Faced with the consequences of his actions, he made a shocking and irreversible decision: he would take Grace’s life.

His plan was cold and meticulous. He went online, not to talk to women, but to research how to carry out a fatal act quickly and how to dispose of a body without drawing attention. He went to a hardware store and bought a five-pound hammer, duct tape, a saw, large garbage bags, building foam, and a large quantity of salt. He hid the hammer in their kitchen cabinet. He then found and rented a nearby storage unit. With his escape plan set — a flight to Thailand booked for December 2, paid for with money he secretly withdrew from Grace’s bank account — he was ready to act.

In the early morning hours of November 30, 2015, while Grace slept soundly, Horst retrieved the hammer and attacked her repeatedly. To his horror, he saw her fingers were still twitching. Determined to finish the job, he suffocated her until she finally stopped moving. The examiner later estimated that it took 15 to 20 minutes for Grace to die.

With his wife de@d, Horst moved to the next, even more disturbing, phase of his plan. He wrapped Grace’s body in a blanket, dragged it from the bedroom, and laid out large plastic sheets on the floor.

There, he dismembered the victim’s body into several parts. He packed each part into a garbage bag with salt to slow decomposition, then placed the bags into four large plastic boxes. He filled the boxes with construction foam, an insulating material he hoped would seal in the odor and hide the contents. He then meticulously cleaned the apartment, removing any trace of the horrific act. Finally, he drove the boxes to the storage unit.

To complete his cover-up, Horst wrote a letter to their neighbors, claiming that Grace had left him and that he was going away to find her. Then, as planned, he boarded his flight to Thailand and spent weeks continuing his deceptive lifestyle abroad, acting as if nothing had happened.

His plan began to unravel when Grace’s coworkers and friends from her Jehovah’s Witnesses group grew concerned. She was supposed to be on vacation in the Philippines, but when she didn’t return, they couldn’t reach her.

Before Christmas, a friend reported her missing. Police found no record of Grace leaving Germany, and an inspection of the pristine apartment revealed no signs of a crime. But they did discover that Horst had booked a solo trip to Thailand, making him their prime suspect.

On January 8, 2016, when Horst stepped off the plane upon his return to Germany, he was immediately arrested. The next day, he confessed to everything and led the police to the storage unit where he had hidden Grace’s remains.

During his trial in August 2016, Horst’s defense tried to argue that the killing was not premeditated, but a spontaneous act of passion. He even claimed that Grace had been looking for other men online. But the evidence of his meticulous planning was overwhelming. A psychiatrist testified that while Horst was highly narcissistic and self-centered, he had no mental illness that would diminish his responsibility. The jury was convinced.

On November 17, 2016, Horst Kerner was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 20 years before being eligible for parole. As the verdict was read, the man who had shown no remorse, who had partied in Thailand just days after committing the brutal crime, finally broke down and cried.

Grace’s brother, who had traveled from the Philippines for the trial, took her remains back home. Justice, however grim, had finally been served for the kind, hardworking woman whose only mistake was to love a man incapable of loving anyone but himself.