That makes sense to me...
36 kilos is the usual limit for a suitcase (Health and Safety for the baggage handlers who might be injured picking up a too-heavy suitcase) so we could probably guess something like 680 kilos in this case and feel correct in that loose assumption, that our well-heeled Germans were on the limit with their bags.
Anyway, I never met a prosperous German male who tipped the scales at 76 kilos fully dressed with his carry-on stuff, there is that, too. (I worked for a while for a German construction company, flying a small aircraft, when I would get actual passenger weights. Some of the numbers were frightening.)
Then the bags would have been slung into the rear hold without being noted on the load sheet, not trying to kill anyone but still overlooking two critical points, the weight and the balance, in the rush to get away on time. That might make another plausible assumption, with the FE then looking at a nice, tidy loadsheet and a cockpit indication that both showed what he wanted to see, 54%. The first real sign of trouble would have been during the take off, I suppose, when the steering was ineffective.
It will be interesting to see what comes out in court. Is this a closed proceeding?