VIENNA, May 14: An Austrian man has confessed to hacking his wife, daughter, parents and father-in-law to death with an axe, leaving the bodies strewn at locations throughout the country, police said on Wednesday.

The bodies of the 39-year-old man’s family were discovered in Vienna, Linz and Ansfelden after he turned himself in to the police in the early hours of Wednesday, Vienna police said in a statement.

His 42-year-old wife and his seven-year-old daughter were found in their flat in the well-to-do area of Hietzing in the Austrian capital, where the man was believed to have killed them on early Tuesday.

The wife’s body was found in the bedroom, while the daughter was found in her own room, partly covered by a blanket, Austrian television reported.

The bodies of his parents were found in Ansfelden, 180 kilometres west of Vienna, and of his father-in-law a few kilometres further north, in the city of Linz.

They were believed to have been killed on Tuesday evening.

The man, who gave his occupation as a self-employed public relations consultant, told police he decided to turn himself in after unsuccessfully trying to hang himself.

He said he wanted to spare his family the shame of being saddled with debt after he lost large sums of money he had borrowed from them — reportedly some 300,000 euros ($462,000) — in a series of risky investments.

Investigators found letters of explanation next to the bodies of the victims. The axe has also been recovered.

The suspect, who is in custody under constant surveillance in case he makes another suicide attempt, was “calm, collected and showing no emotion,” investigator Thomas Stecher said.

Stecher said that the suspect had clearly planned the murders in cold blood, given the amount of time between the first two killings at around 7:30 am (0530 GMT) and the other three at around 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) and the 360-kilometre round trip between the different crime scenes.

Austria is still trying to come to terms with another horrific crime that came to light two weeks ago when it was revealed that a 73-year-old man had held his daughter as a sex slave for 24 years.—AFP