Frantic parents from Germany were searching for their missing 23-year-old daughter when they came across a terrible discovery – her parked car with a dead woman in the back seat. The parents called the police and watched as their daughter's body was removed from the car.

But it wasn't their daughter at all, but another girl, who looked a lot like her, says "Washington Post".

The daughter is now accused of killing her doppelgänger, whom she previously searched for online, to fake her own death, authorities said.

The girl originally from Iraq lived in Ingolstadt, in the south of Germany, her name is Shahraban K., and the case shocked the public. Her parents traveled from Munich to Ingolstadt to find her after she stopped answering their calls – and found her car and body on August 16. Police launched an investigation and issued an initial homicide report, saying the woman appeared to be the "victim of a violent crime." But doubts quickly arose about her identity, as DNA samples and fingerprints from the victim did not match those of Shahraban. Police also heard "rumours" that the missing girl was later seen driving a car in the area, a police spokesman said. Andreas Aikele.

A day after the car and the victim were found, the police established "completely new circumstances" during the investigation and arrested the girl, who was with a 23-year-old Kosovan, on suspicion of murder. The victim has been named in German media as Algerian blogger Kadia O., also 23, who investigators say looked "uncannily similar" to Shahraban K.

Authorities now believe the suspects hatched a plan to find a girl who could pass as Shahraban, who, according to police and prosecutors, "wanted to hide because of a family dispute" and therefore decided to fake her own death.

The suspect "talked to several young women" who looked similar to her on the Internet and together with the Kosovar tried to lure them into a meeting through false promises.

On August 16, the two suspects traveled to the Heilbronn area, in the neighboring state of Baden-Württemberg, to pick up the victim from her home, police said. They then took her to a wooded area and stabbed her multiple times, before returning to Ingolstadt, where they left her body in the back of the vehicle.

The two suspects, now 24 years old, have been in custody since August and now face a charge of first degree murder, which carries a life sentence. The investigation is ongoing.