It is a case that still puzzles the police in Bavaria to this day: On Friday, January 24, 1986, a walker found a body not far from the fence of the Balthasar Neumann barracks on the outskirts of Veitshöchheim in the Würzburg district of Lower Franconia. It quickly turns out: the dead woman is 24-year-old Evelin Höbler. She had divorced two years earlier and had been living alone in an apartment since then, just a few minutes’ drive from where the body was found.
The young woman went to the cinema with her friend the day before. There they saw “Quatermain – In Search of the Treasure of Kings” – starring Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone. At around 8 p.m. they parted ways at Würzburg main station. Shortly before 9 p.m. she got on the bus to Gütersleben. As the police later reconstructed, the young woman must have been in her apartment but left it later. Her wallet and handbag were later found in the apartment.
When she didn’t show up at her workplace in a chocolate factory on Friday morning, she wasn’t initially missing. She had complained of a toothache in the previous days and her colleagues now believed that she had visited a dentist.
Even more than 37 years after her body was found, the police still have no leads. The examination of the body revealed that Eveline Höbler was not killed in her apartment or where she was later found. The perpetrator initially tried to suffocate her and ultimately killed her with 30 stab wounds. Investigators concluded that she had taken off her anorak and sweatshirt when the attack occurred and that the perpetrator had later put the clothes back on her. He probably brought her body to the site by car. There the police also found an asthma spray and a ballpoint pen from Bauer Verlag. In addition, a red pencil case in which Eveline Höbler kept her apartment key has been missing since the crime.
The case has been investigated more intensively since the end of 2022. Among other things, the police officers evaluate the traces and evidence from today’s perspective. “An existing DNA trace of the possible perpetrator was also evaluated using today’s methods,” said a police spokesman. “A large number of people close to those killed have already been checked and excluded.”
Can a call on the show “Aktenzeichen XY” help clear up the case? This is what the investigators are hoping for when they present the case there on Wednesday (from 8:15 p.m. on ZDF). The broadcast is also intended to help reach possible witnesses who no longer live in the region. The State Criminal Police Office and the Würzburg public prosecutor’s office have also offered a reward of 10,000 euros for information that leads to the arrest of the perpetrator.
Also read: Alfred Hettmer says goodbye to “file number XY”. This Wednesday he will present the first viewer information for the last time at the end of the ZDF broadcast. But he also revealed to the star that it’s not a complete farewell.
