[1] Hoffmann was unemployed for three years after leaving school, and from 1992 on he worked as a warden at a construction yard for eleven months.
Hoffmann soon discovered his sexually sadistic tendencies and began to torment and kill frogs and mice that he himself caught.
He only received two years of probation, as he had no previous convictions and was considered to have a "positive social prognosis" by the court.
He then began working for the German Red Cross as a paramedic at major events for five years, and met his future wife, whom he soon married.
[1][3] In June 2003, Hoffmann lost his job with the security company and was unemployed from then on, leading to an increase in his aimless drives.
[1] On 6 May 2004, Hoffmann was driving in the Cuxhaven district of Altenwalde when he saw the 8-year-old Levke S. waiting outside of her parents' house.
He lured the girl into his car and carried her to a wooded area where he sexually abused the child and then strangled her with a zip tie.
After waiting for the onset of darkness, Hoffmann abused and then strangled the boy with his bare hands, throwing the body into the Geeste at Bremerhaven.
[3][5] On 29 June 2005, the Stade County Court sentenced Hoffmann to life imprisonment for the sexual abuse and murder of the two children.
[4] The chairman of the assizes, Berend Appelkamp, found the verdict justified as Hoffmann had "inflicted unimaginable suffering" on others.
[10] After Hoffmann's capture, investigating authorities in the murder cases of Levke and Felix were accused of ignoring evidence.
The woman was aware of Hoffmann's previous rape charge, and reported her suspicions to the police in early September 2004, over a month before Felix's murder took place.
According to these reports, Hoffmann was neither sadistic nor a paedophile, but showed a "massive lack of emotion and compassion" and saw his victims as sacrifices.
Hoffmann was questioned and pressured to confess by the beamters to the girl's murder in September 2005, but to this day he denies involvement.
According to media reports, this supposedly refers to two children killed in East Germany, two hitchhikers, and two older women.
[8][14] Hoffmann was a suspect in the murder of 8-year-old Johanna Bohnacker from Hesse, whose body was found on 1 April 2000 after she had gone missing seven months earlier.
On 26 October 2017, the police announced that paedophile Rick J. had been arrested for the girl's murder, eliminating Hoffmann as a suspect.