Germany: Undertakers 'killed' Parlour Boss

The quiet world of a small Bavarian community has been shattered by the revelations of a feud between its undertakers that ended in a murder that investigators called "a near-perfect crime".

A row over an unpaid debt led two undertakers to allegedly batter to death a colleague and cremate his ashes under a false name before scattering them in a river, state prosecutors in Erlangen said.

Friedrich P, a 53-year-old undertaker, has apparently admitted to beating Erich W to death with a piece of wood in Büchenbach in April last year after a dispute over the sale of the funeral parlor.

Friedrich and his colleague Michael S. 52, who has yet to give a statement, are believed to have placed 43-year-old Erich's body in a hearse and driven it to a private crematorium where he was cremated under a false name before his ashes were scattered in a river near Nuremberg.

Erich' s wife did not report her husband's disappearance for a year, believing that he may have emigrated to America.

In Germany, surnames are withheld during criminal investigations.