Unsolved cases: Cold cases are a particular challenge for investigators

Cold cases keep investigators busy again and again: They pored over old files, commissioned current reports or looked for new clues to solve the crimes. “In addition to the meticulous work, the ever-evolving forensic technology also means that cases can be solved years later,” says Laura Kaufmann-Conrad, spokeswoman for the Hessian State Office of Criminal Investigation. A few years ago, the authority in Wiesbaden even set up a special department called the “Cold Case Unit” (CCU) to deal specifically with old cases.

Cold cases have a certain fascination for people. They will also be the focus of the new “Tatort” episodes from Frankfurt, which will be broadcast in the ARD Will be shown. With this, HR is entering new territory within its “Tatort” format,” says Hessischer Rundfunk (HR).

Around 300 unsolved cases in Hesse

According to the State Criminal Police Office, there are currently around 300 unsolved homicides and missing persons cases throughout Hesse. “In general, the crimes committed in the cases investigated date back to 1980,” says Kaufmann-Conrad. But if there are concrete indications of older cases, these will also be dealt with on an ad hoc basis.

A spectacular cold case is the case of the suspected serial killer Manfred S. from Schwalbach. Exactly ten years ago, in September 2014, his daughter made a gruesome discovery while clearing out her deceased father's garage in Schwalbach: a woman's body parts were lying in a plastic bin. As it later turned out, these were the remains of a prostitute who had probably been dead for many years.

The investigation revealed that he may have murdered up to ten people for sadistic reasons, mostly prostitutes from the Frankfurt drug scene. Manfred S. himself could no longer be questioned. The pensioner, who was considered an upstanding family man, died around two weeks before his daughter's fund.

Ten years after the body was found, the investigation has been suspended. However, further witness reports are being accepted via the Hessian police website, which contains photos of the suspect and a photo gallery of the victims. “The investigation will be resumed as soon as new information is available,” it says.

Education is important to give relatives certainty

Solving unsolved cases, perhaps even decades later, is important for a number of reasons. “It's about ensuring legal peace, giving the bereaved certainty and prevention,” Giessen prosecutor Thomas Hauburger, who deals intensively with cold cases, once told the dpa. “What torments relatives most is the uncertainty.” There is also the preventive aspect. Because the perpetrator could still be dangerous.

Sometimes investigations get going again when unsolved cases are reported on TV shows or true crime podcasts – and new clues come in afterwards. Nevertheless, the work is often challenging: sometimes further investigations are necessary or new reports have to be prepared. Witnesses may not remember exactly after all these years or may even have died. In addition, some clues or documents are simply no longer available.

Perpetrator convicted 35 years later

But the effort can be worth it: Just last year, a 62-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Darmstadt Regional Court, almost four decades after the death of a 15-year-old in Lindenfels in southern Hesse. The court reported that the German pushed the young people into the forest on their way home from a swimming pool near their parents' house in June 1986, threatened them with a knife, seduced them and then stabbed them to death. Almost 35 years after the crime, genetic traces on a spade showed a match with the DNA of the convicted sex offender. The verdict is not yet final, as an appeal has been filed.

And in 2017, the murderer of little Johanna was caught. Almost 20 years after her death. In September 1999, the Eight Years' War kidnapped and killed from Ranstadt in central Hesse.

The successes in solving the crime show “that perpetrators of previously unsolved homicides or missing persons cases cannot be sure, even after years, that they will not receive the punishment they deserve for their crimes,” says LKA spokeswoman Kaufmann-Conrad.

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