Berlin. Some cold cases have occupied the public for decades. Why investigators are not making any progress in three spectacular cases.
Unsolved criminal cases, so-called Cold Caseshold a great fascination for many people. The cases are particularly tragic for the relatives of the victims because they may never find out what really happened to their children, parents or siblings.
Some of these crimes remain unsolved decades after the crime and are etched into the collective memory of the Germans. Cold cases are still being solved, mostly thanks to improved Forensic ScienceBut in many cases the traces remain cold.
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Cold Cases: The Peggy Knobloch case remains unsolved
For example, in the case of the 2001 disappearance Peggy KnoblochThe then nine-year-old was on her way home from school when she disappeared not far from her parents’ house. The investigation dragged on and a special commission was unsuccessful. In 2003, a mentally disabled man was charged and convicted of Peggy’s murder the following year. However, after a retrial, the verdict was overturned in 2014.
Cold Case Peggy Knobloch: The press officer for the police department in Hof, Upper Franconia, holds a leaflet with photos and information about the disappearance of the missing nine-year-old. The case remains unsolved to this day.
© picture-alliance / dpa | Marcus Führer
It was not until two years later, in July 2016, that remains that could be attributed to Peggy Knobloch were found in a forest in Thuringia. In 2018, the police began investigations into another Suspects During an interrogation, he stated that he had received the lifeless body from a third party and brought it to the location where the body was later found. He later retracted this confession and had to be released from custody. In 2020, the police stopped investigating the case – almost 20 years after the girl’s disappearance.
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The Maria Bögerl case: Did the failed handover of money seal her fate?
The extent to which the victims’ relatives can suffer from their mysterious fate is also shown by the case of the Maria Bögerl. She had previously been kidnapped from her house. The kidnappers quickly contacted her husband, the CEO of the Heidenheim District Savings Bank, with a ransom demand. 300,000 euros were to be left on the motorway. But the handover failed because the money could not be obtained in time.
Cold Case Maria Bögerl: Photos of the victim and her car as well as a phantom image of the suspected kidnapper hang on a pinboard.
© picture alliance / APN | Oskar Eyb
The kidnappers reported after the failed money transfer never again. Two days later, the woman’s car was discovered, with traces of DNA on it. But there was still no trace of Maria Bögerl. Despite a large-scale search in a forest, the then 54-year-old was not found. Two weeks later, a walker discovered the woman’s body. This brought the police considerable criticism.
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In 2011, Thomas Bögerl, the husband of the kidnapped woman, took his own life. The couple’s children were not sparing in their criticism of the police in the obituary. Their father could no longer bear the “unsuccessful police investigations” and “unspeakable slander”, they said. There had been rumors that Bögerl had been suspected by the police. Both parties have always denied this. Despite several Mass DNA testing No perpetrator could be identified. A special commission investigated for years without success. In 2023, the investigation was closed without result.
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Cold Case Günther Stoll: What does the letter sequence YOGTZE mean?
A particularly strange cold case is the so-called YOGTZE Case from 1984. The victim: Günther Stoll, a 34-year-old from North Rhine-Westphalia. The case remains one of the most mysterious criminal cases in Germany. The police were able to reconstruct many of the events, but the background remains unclear to this day.
The so-called YOGTZE case, which concerned the mysterious death of Günther Stoll, was also the subject of the 1985 show “Aktenzeichen XY… ungelöst”. Nevertheless, investigators are still in the dark today.
© Screenshot | Case number XY
According to his wife, Günther Stoll had Paranoia and persecution mania suffered. His wife reported that on the evening before his death he had said he was afraid that “they” would do something to him. During the course of the evening, Stoll suddenly said: “Now I’ve got a light on my mind.” He wrote the letters YOG’TZE on a piece of paper and immediately crossed them out. However, his wife did not remember this piece of paper until six months after his death. She had thrown away the note that gave the case its name that same evening.
At around 11 p.m., Stoll left the house, drove to a bar and ordered a beer. But before he could drink it, he fell off his chair and injured his head. Why? Unclear. A little later, he turned up in his hometown. There he rang the doorbell of one of his mother’s neighbors. She says he seemed confused and told her that something was going to happen that night. “Terrible” happen. Stoll then disappeared into the night.
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At around 3 a.m. his car was discovered on the embankment at a motorway exit. On the passenger seat: Günther Stollnaked, dirty, seriously injured. Stoll told the truck driver who found him that he had been in the car with three other people. He died a short time later. The same truck driver also claims to have seen a man at Stoll’s car. But he has disappeared. And the YOGTZE case remains unsolved to this day.
