It is a gruesome discovery that a motorcyclist makes on June 2, 1997 at around 7.30 p.m. in the forest in Altena-Rahmede in North Rhine-Westphalia – near the Bergfel settlement. Before him lie the charred remains of a woman. As the Hagen criminal police later determined, the woman was raped and choked before her death. They were then doused in petrol and set on fire. The autopsy brings further horrifying findings to light: When the perpetrator drove her into the forest, dumped her there and burned her, she must still have been alive. However, there is no trace of a canister or the victim’s clothing.
The investigators found DNA traces under the fingernails. These suggest that the perpetrator is the young woman’s father – or at least that he was involved in the crime. But both his identity and that of the victim remain unknown. Reconstructions of the remains reveal that the woman had dark auburn hair, light skin, and dark eyes. At the time of death – as the forensic experts estimate – the 1.55 meter tall woman weighed around 45 kilograms. Her shoe size is estimated between 33 and 35, her age between 18 and 22 years.
The well-groomed teeth of the deceased are also striking, especially one of the upper incisors, which apparently had a crystal glass stone as a tooth ornament when the victim was alive. The investigators are hoping for new clues from a call on the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY” on Wednesday (July 26 at 8:15 p.m.). A reward of 2,000 euros is offered for those who lead to the solving of the crime.
The Federal Criminal Police Office included the case from Altena-Bergfeld in the international “Identify Me” campaign at the beginning of May. In cooperation with the Dutch and Belgian police, a cross-border search is now being carried out on 22 murder cases in which previously unknown women were the victims. Six of these cases occurred in Germany.
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Sources: Hagen Police, Federal Criminal Police Office
