An evil husband spiked his wife’s wine with diazepam before strangling her in her sleep and then chopping her up, say prosecutors.

A suitcase stuffed with the severed body parts of mum-of-one Ekaterina Baumann, 32, washed up on the banks of the Weser river in Bremerhaven, north-western Germany, in early March.

Her widower, 43-year-old docker Walter Baumann, has now been charged with her murder.

Prosecutors have now revealed shocking new details about the case.

Ekaterina – from Saint Petersburg, Russia – was last seen on CCTV entering the home where she lived with her husband and their six-year-old daughter at around 4pm on 5th February.

She had previously moved out on two separate occasions to take refuge at a women’s shelter but had moved back to the family home before the alleged killing.

The victim’s mother Svetlana, 53, told German media: “My daughter was beaten and humiliated by him, she had filed for divorce.”

Prosecutors believe Walter drugged his wife with diazepam bought from a pharmacy in January.

He is believed to have spiked her drink with it on the evening of the crime.

Svetlana revealed: “Walter and my daughter must have eaten together beforehand. According to the autopsy report, she had fish and rose wine in her stomach.”

Prosecutors believe Ekaterina was manually strangled while she was sleeping. They say she was then chopped up and her body parts stuffed into the suitcase.

All of her body parts have since been recovered apart from her right thigh.

Her severed hands were found inside disposable gloves, while her other body parts were wrapped in foil or rubbish bags.

Walter had proposed to Ekaterina just one week after meeting her for the first time while on holiday in Turkey in 2009, when Ekaterina was a student.

They got married in Bremerhaven the following year. Their daughter Viktoria was born in 2017.

Svetlana had told German media in an earlier interview that before their daughter was born: “Walter was so caring.”

But friends said that after the birth: “Viktoria was his little princess, his wife was worth nothing to him anymore.”

The suspect remains in custody and has so far remained silent on the allegations against him.

He will go on trial early next month (August).