Thousands missing in germany, currently germany, dw

11,000 people are missing in Germany, including many children. Most cases clear up within a few days – but in some cases, investigators have been puzzling for years or even decades.

Of the thousands of missing persons in Germany, more than 7,000 are under the age of 18. This was announced by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in Wiesbaden. Around half of the missing minors are young, unaccompanied refugees. As of October 1, 2018, around 3,500 unaccompanied refugees in Germany were missing, including 902 under the age of 13.

These numbers could, however "serve only as an approximation", said a BKA spokeswoman. Because it is difficult to collect the actual number. For example, some refugees were recorded several times because of different spellings of their names, and often papers were also missing.

The Peggy case

The number of missing persons includes both cases that clear up within a few days and missing persons who have disappeared up to 30 years ago – or never reappear. According to the BKA, around 250 to 300 missing persons are searched and deleted every day. The rarest cases are as spectacular as the year-long search for Peggy from Upper Franconia, which ended after 15 years with the discovery of her body. Peggy’s death is still unknown after a suspect’s arrest nearly two weeks ago.

Peggy Garlic case: after 15 years, her body was found

"Experience has shown that around 50 percent of missing person cases are resolved within the first week", it said at the BKA. Armin Gartelmann, head of the missing person’s office at the Bremen police, said: "There are people who go a week to the hospital and don’t tell anyone. Others go on vacation and don’t tell anyone." According to the BKA, more than 80 percent of the cases are resolved after one month. The proportion of people missing for more than a year is only around three percent.

Young people, but also senior citizens

According to the BKA, almost two thirds of all missing persons are male. About half of all missing persons are children and adolescents, for which there are various reasons for their disappearance: "Problems at school or with parents, lovesickness" – and so on. But it is often also the elderly. A case in Lower Saxony ended tragically this year. In mid-November, an angler discovered the body of almost two in Uelzen near Hamburg weeks long-missing 80-year-olds. According to the police, the woman was probably not the victim of a crime. She was suffering from dementia.

But there are always the big, mysterious cases in which a person disappears without a trace from one day to the next. This includes mother Sylvia and her daughter Miriam from Drage in Lower Saxony, who was twelve years old when she disappeared. In summer three years ago, they suddenly went from one day to the next. According to a spokesman, the police assume that the father of the family killed them.

Missing for almost 18 years: The Katrin Konert case remains unsolved

Investigators have also been concerned with Katrin Konert’s case for almost 18 years. The girl disappeared as a 15-year-old on New Year’s Day 2001. The police recently reopened the case. In the city Bremen has no trace of around 15 people, police officer Gartelmann reported. "I am seriously worried about three of them. I am afraid that they are dead."

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New findings in the Peggy case

Little Peggy has been missing since 2001, and mushroom pickers found her body in July. At the site, investigators found DNA traces of the alleged NSU terrorist Uwe Böhnhardt. Investigators now have an explanation for it. (03.08.2017)

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Search on Facebook

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date 12/24/2018
topics pagesGermany
TagsMissing, BK, Germany
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