After the death of a five-year-old girl in Berlin, the police are continuing their investigation into the background. The arrested suspect should be questioned today, said a police spokesman. At first it was unclear whether the German-Turkish 19-year-old would comment. The young man was arrested on Tuesday after passers-by found the missing girl lifeless in the Pankow public park. The child was taken to the hospital by helicopter. There it died.
“It showed injuries where you have to assume that it’s a homicide where it’s in the room,” said the police spokesman late Tuesday evening. The arrested 19-year-old has a connection to the girl, who has German-Polish-Turkish nationality, the spokesman said. However, he did not say what relationship the victim and the arrested person had to each other.
Many questions remain unanswered
A homicide squad has taken over the investigation. Police officers had secured traces in the Pankow Citizens Park until late in the evening. Now possible witnesses are to be questioned. It was initially unclear when the autopsy of the girl’s body would take place.
Before the five-year-old disappeared, according to the police, it was said to have been seen in Paule Park behind the Rathaus-Center. From there it is only a few hundred meters to the later site. What exactly happened was initially unclear. As the RBB reported, the police were looking for the girl with almost 100 emergency services and a helicopter at times.
After the girl’s death, people near the place where she was found put candles, a yellow flower and a small stuffed animal were put down. Berlin’s governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) reacted with dismay. “My thoughts are with the little girl’s parents and their loved ones. It breaks my heart and I am deeply saddened,” she wrote on Twitter.
