A St Johnstone director sparked a German murder probe after spotting a floating corpse from his hotel window.
Perth businessman Stan Harris has spoken of his horror after making the grim discovery on a business trip.
The 54-year-old, who has been on the Saints board since 2006, could yet be questioned again by German police after he discovered the corpse, which had apparently had its throat cut, floating in the moat of his Cologne castle hotel.
Mr Harris said he and business colleague Ian Tongue were at Schloss Gracht with around 20 senior managers for a week-long conference.
He said: ”We were staying at an old baronial home which has been transformed into a conference centre.
“There’s a moat around Schloss Gracht and myself and colleague Ian Tongue spotted the body floating face down in the water. It was only 10 feet from us through an open window. We both got a real jolt.
”We alerted hotel staff who contacted the police. Very quickly the body was pulled from the moat and it lay on the bank for some time. The area was cordoned off. There appeared to be a wound across the man’s throat.”
Mr Harris, of West Kinfauns, said investigations were ongoing as he left Germany but he has been warned he may yet have to return to give further evidence.
He said: ”There was some talk of raised voices the night before but the authorities were still investigating it when I headed back to Scotland.
”The body was that of a 35-year-old German of Russian descent. It had all the hallmarks of a murder investigation and we were told we might have to return to Germany at some stage as witnesses.”
Reports from Germany suggested the cause of death has still not been established but murder has not been ruled out, with the German murder squad the Mordkommission in charge of the case.
Mr Harris is managing director of Linde Material Handling, the world’s second biggest forklift company.
Born and brought up in Perth, Mr Harris is a life-long Saints fan and attended his first game for the club when he was only three.