TRUE CRIME
Who was serial killer Dirk P. and why is he called the Darkroom Murderer?
Find out when and where you can catch the docuseries about the chilling investigation
DIRK P. was an alias used by a serial killer who targeted men in Berlin gay bars.
Here we take a look at his grisly crimes and why he became known as the Darkroom Murderer.
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Who was the Darkroom Murderer?
Three men were murdered in Berlin in 2012 when they were drugged with a lethal dose of GHB — known as "liquid ecstasy" — and then robbed.
Crime scenes in the cases provided few clues or any hard evidence, leaving cops scrambling to find a suspect.
A young man was found dead at sex club Grosse Freiheit 114 in April of that year.
Bartender Matthias recalled it was a typical Friday night when his boss rang his doorbell and asked him to come to the club.
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He said: "The next thing I know we have a dead body at our bar. I didn’t know who, why, how or what.
"My co-worker who found him didn’t initially think he was dead, he was trying to wake him up.
"He put a glass of water next to him and said he would be back in ten minutes and then he’d have to kick him out.
"But when he came back the man’s skin had changed colour and it was at this stage he realised what was actually going on.
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"The crew thought it might have been a sex accident, or too much drugs or alcohol or a combination of everything."
Police were called to the scene — but were unable to find any evidence or identify the man.
Senior homicide investigator Andreas Voges said: "It’s the kind of place you’d expect a lot of evidence, including DNA evidence…
It is hard to understand why someone would do this: rob someone of their life
Regine Luck
"There were paper tissues lying around and we inspected the garbage that was filled with condoms.
"But with nothing to identify the body, it was a John Doe case."
The coroner found evidence of strangulation but nothing to suggest a struggle.
When police returned to the bar with a photo of the victim he was identified as 32-year-old Nicky Miller.
One of the employees recognised him as a regular who worked at the nearby metro market.
Nicky's sister Anka Hilgert described him as a beautiful person who was loved by everyone and would often "wear a wig and pass as a woman... and sometimes dressed in high heels".
Although there was no conclusive evidence to prove Nicky's death was murder, coroner Dr Sven Hartwig admitted they couldn't rule out the possibility that the victim was poisoned.
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Sven said: "Other than alcohol, no other substances could be forensically traced on Nicky.
"No narcotics were detected. Cause of death with no concrete evidence is very difficult."
Three weeks before Nicky died in the dark room, a man called Alexander was found dead in his apartment after his grandmother, Regine Luck, was told he hadn't showed up for work.
"I phoned his mum who went and checked on him — he was lying on his bed dead," she said.
"It is hard to understand why some one would do this: rob someone of their life."
Inspector Laschke said the victim's body was once again untouched and showed no signs of struggle before death — but his phone and wallet were missing.
An autopsy failed to confirm the cause of death.
And another man named Peter was murdered in his own apartment just 11 days after the dark room incident.
He met Dirk P. in an online chat room.
In later interviews the killer admitted he had brazenly placed his "glass bottle of knockout drugs" on the table in his victim's living room before lacing his drink.
Peter was found by police lying face down on his bed, with an autopsy later finding he had a high dosage of GHB in his system.
Andreas said: "By this time, we also had a full itemised list of phone calls made from Alexander’s phone.
"It is often the case that whoever was last contacted usually holds invaluable information.
"We found outgoing text messages to a number registered to a man named Dirk P."
The breakthrough in the investigation came when one intended victim, Miroslaw Wawak, survived an attack.
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His encounter with the killer began on the way home from a night out when he remembers buying a beer and a peppermint liqueur for his train ride home.
He was alone on the platform when he was approached by a man in his early thirties and they began chatting.
As they travelled together the stranger offered to trade his peppermint drink for a bottle of Schnapps, which Miroslaw accepted and then downed.
He added: "At that moment it felt like my head was going to explode.
"Shortly after, we arrived in Berlin, he said he knew his way around and would show me to the right bus stop.
"After a while I couldn’t stand and I realised something wasn’t right. My forehead was soaking wet.
"He then put his hand on my back, slid his hand under my shirt and felt around and said 'do you feel unwell'?."
The next thing Miroslaw remembers is waking up in hospital and realising his credit card and cash had been stolen, which he reported to the police.
The murderer attempted to purchase a train ticket using a credit card from one of his deceased victims, and when that was declined he used another card he'd stolen from Miroslaw.
The police could now make the link between the two men.
Miroslaw later remember the platform number and time he travelled, helping police identify the right CCTV cameras, meaning police finally had an image of the man they were looking for.
Dirk P.'s crimes are said to have taken place within a few days.
According to German news agency Tagesspiegel, the triple murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2013, with the 39-year-old killer to spend at least 25 years in prison.
Even though the total loot from Dirk P.'s crimes was only 500 €, a German court believed greed was the main motive.
However, Judge Peter Schuster also stated in his verdict: "He also wanted to feel total power over others and revel in it."
Dirk P. served as a trainee teacher at an elementary school in Brandenburg before his crime spree.
He had also trained as a nurse — equipping him with knowledge about the deadly impact of GHB.
Prior to these heinous crimes, his criminal record was clean.
The murderer took his own life in 2014 while he was behind bars.
Why was Dirk P. called the Darkroom Murderer?
The unidentified assailant was initially referred to as the Darkroom Murderer.
This is because one of the murders occurred in a darkroom of a Berlin gay club.
Many Berlin clubs offered the LGBTQ+ community unrestricted access to "dark rooms" — a safe place for anonymous sex with strangers.
How to find out more about the Darkroom Murderer
The investigation into the Darkroom Murderer features in Netflix's latest docuseries — Crime Scene Berlin: Nightlife Killer, which is available from April 3.
Crime Scene Berlin: Nightlife Killer: All about the German true crime documentary on Netflix
The series is in German, so unless you speak the language you'll need to watch with subtitles.
Nightlife Killer is a three-part docuseries similar to The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.
The true crime show features the voices of investigators who worked on the case, relatives of the men who were killed, and a survivor who narrowly escaped the same fate.
Homicide lead investigator Monika Laschke tells the show: "This is the kind of case that made me feel we were dealing with a monster.
"A once in a century case."
Crime Scene is a franchise created by filmmaker Joe Berlinger, who also made Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich.
Executive producer of the show Christian Beetz said: “The true-crime genre is important than ever in our documentary industry, so we will release a bigger slate of true-crime documentaries and series.
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“We will invest in the future more in its development and storytelling. I am very excited to work in these field with our showrunner and CCO Georg Tschurtschenthaler and with the EP Joe Berlinger.”
In 2019, a German crime drama called Darkroom – Tödliche Tropfen, also reported on the case.