Against the will of her parents, a girl makes her way home alone at night – and never comes home: 39 years ago a schoolgirl was killed, now a television report is supposed to help solve the unsolved case.
Almost four decades after the murder of a 15-year-old student from northern Swabia, the police still want to solve the case. The violent crime against high school student Simone Langer from Donauwörth in the summer of 1983 is now being presented in the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY…unsolved”. The case will be recreated this Wednesday at 8:15 p.m. with a film, the “XY” press office said.
The criminal police in Dillingen have rolled up the entire investigation from back then and are now hoping that the TV report will provide new clues and that the perpetrator can be caught after almost 39 years. The Kripo deals with so-called cold cases again and again in order to bring old cases to a conclusion with new investigative methods. Murder cases such as the act of violence against the schoolgirl do not become statute-barred and can therefore still be prosecuted decades later.
The 15-year-old celebrated on July 28, 1983 in the evening of a friend’s birthday. Simone’s parents allowed this if the boyfriend then accompanies the girl home. But that night she still cycled the seven kilometers home alone. The student arrived at the outskirts of Donauwörth between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m., where she was probably attacked. Local residents later reported screams for help, a witness claims to have seen a suspicious minibus.
The bike of the then 15-year-old.
(Photo: Dillingen police/dpa)
The student’s damaged bike was later discovered just before the Donauwörth town sign. A major search operation involving several hundred emergency services, a helicopter and search dogs was unsuccessful. It was suspected that the 15-year-old had been kidnapped in a van. About two months later, the girl’s body was found in Middle Franconia. A mushroom picker discovered the dead woman in a forest near Allersberg (Roth district) near Autobahn 9 (Munich-Nuremberg) – around 80 kilometers from the student’s home.
As the Augsburg police headquarters reported on Tuesday, there could also be a trail to Kronach in Upper Franconia in this case. A police spokesman did not want to give any details. The background to this would be presented in the show, he said. Through the television search, the investigators hope that witnesses who saw Simone Langer that night will report.
The officials could also take further evidence of a van in the area of the crime scene or of events in the forest area in Middle Franconia. In the unsolved murder case, there is a reward of 10,000 euros for information that leads to the clarification of the crime.