Volker Eckert was born on July 1, 1959, in Oelsnitz, East Germany. He grew up in Plauen, a nearby city. He was the oldest of three children in his family.

From a young age, Eckert showed unusual interests. Between the ages of six and nine, he became sexually aroused by stroking the hair of his sister's dolls. He also explored his interest by playing with his mother's wigs that were kept in the attic. This fascination with hair developed over time and would later have a significant impact on his life.

During the years of 1968 and 1969, Eckert went through precocious puberty. He felt isolated and didn't tell his classmates about it. He feared they would laugh at him or not understand. This experience led him to believe that no one would react positively to his feelings.

As he entered the 1970s, his fantasies grew larger. He imagined situations where he could interact with hair, even using his dolls to explore these ideas. He thought that no woman would allow him to touch her hair, which intensified his fantasies.

When Eckert was 14, his parents went through a difficult divorce. His mother forced his father to leave their home, which added to the instability in his life.

During the 1973-1974 school year, Eckert began to stalk some of his classmates who had long hair. He fantasized about strangling them and stroking their hair, revealing his troubling thoughts and feelings as a young teenager.

On 7 May 1974, Volker Eckert, who was only 14 years old at the time, murdered his classmate, Silvia Unterdörfel. He lured her into an attic and strangled her with a curtain cord. When Silvia resisted, he strangled her even harder until she died. After Silvia was dead, Eckert arranged the scene to look like a suicide by hanging the cord around her neck and attaching it to the doorknob. The authorities classified the case as suicide, and Eckert kept the murder a secret for over 32 years.

In 1975, Eckert began wandering the streets of Plauen at night, looking for women. In 1977, when he was 18, he was arrested for strangling a woman in the street. He was sentenced to eight months in prison for this sexual assault and was released in 1978. Between 1979 and 1987, he attacked approximately thirty women in Plauen but did not kill any of them. He often left his victims unconscious after throttling them. After the death of his parents, he took care of his younger siblings until they were sent to live with an aunt.

In April 1987, the body of 18-year-old Heike Wunderlich was found in Plauen. She had been strangled and stripped naked. This murder was thought to be unrelated to Eckert’s earlier assaults, and he was not connected to it. Later in 1987, Eckert assaulted another teenager, Claudia. He followed her one evening and attacked her, leaving her unconscious. When Claudia woke up, she provided a sketch to the police. Dr. Norbert Nedopil recognized it as resembling Eckert, leading to his arrest for attempted murder.

Eckert was tried in 1988 and found guilty of attempted murder. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. During his time in prison, he received little therapy and was deemed fit for release. In July 1994, he was released after serving about six and a half years.

Eckert then moved to Hof, Bavaria. He became a truck driver in 1999 and targeted sex workers between 2001 and 2006. He murdered several women, including Sandra Osifo, Beatriz Diaz, Ahhiobe Gali, Mariy Veselova, Agneska Bos, and Miglena Petrova. Most of these victims were strangled. After killing them, Eckert took photographs and performed amateur post-mortems. He documented the murders and kept items from his victims.

Authorities believe he may have committed an additional seven murders across Europe. These include Heike Wunderlich and several sex workers in France and the Czech Republic.

On 2 November 2006, a surveillance camera captured Eckert's truck near the body of one of his victims. The police used this footage to identify him. He was arrested on 17 November 2006 in Germany. In his truck and home, police found evidence including hair from victims and photographs of the murders. Eckert confessed to six murders during interrogations.

While awaiting trial in July 2007, he died by suicide in his cell in Bayreuth, Bavaria. He used a drape to hang himself. Eckert had reportedly been upset because his sister did not visit him to celebrate his birthday the previous day.