Ten year old died in 2010
Kidnapped, abused, murdered: The Mirco case in “Aktenzeichen XY…solved!”
In “Aktenzeichen XY…solved!” moderator Sven Voss (l.) speaks to Ingo Thiel – the then chief investigator in the Mirco S. murder case.
© ZDF/Stella Coniglio
Twelve years ago, ten-year-old Mirco disappeared from Grefrath in North Rhine-Westphalia. After a search lasting several months, it is clear: the ten-year-old was abused and killed. On Friday, the case is the subject of “Aktenzeichen XY…solven!”
Mirco S. from Grefrath in North Rhine-Westphalia disappears on a warm summer’s day. It’s September 3, 2010 when the ten-year-old student is playing at a skate park near his parents’ house. He doesn’t ride his bike home until around 10 p.m. But he never gets there.
The chief investigator at the time, Ingo Thiel, remembers: “I received a call on September 4 that a ten-year-old boy had disappeared.” At that time, a witness had already contacted the police because he had discovered Mirco’s bicycle on a dirt road on the way to the bakery in the morning. Since he wanted to take it home and prepare it for his son, he had already cleaned it with a pressure washer.
Witness finds Mirco sweatpants in remote parking lot
Hundreds of officers then searched an area of around 50 square kilometers around a radio cell where the boy’s cell phone was last logged on. The population also helps, posters are distributed. The Bundeswehr’s tornadoes are also used in the search.
Hundreds of emergency services took part in the search for little Mirco
© Rene Tillmann/ / Picture Alliance
A witness finally finds jogging pants on a closed road in a parking lot in the area of a garbage can. Investigators also found other clothes belonging to the boy in the parking lot. Road workers find Mirco’s cell phone a few kilometers away. The special police commission now assumes that the student was kidnapped and killed.
On September 15, 2010, the Mirco case was the subject of the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY…unsolved”. A witness then reports who observed a VW Passat that night, the driver of which was possibly about to throw the boy’s bicycle onto the dirt road. On the jogging pants, the LKA Düsseldorf found fibers from a car seat, which is only found in a VW Passat of the B6 series. There are 2500 cars of this series in the Grefrath area. All are checked piece by piece, experts tape off every car seat to secure traces of fibers.
Trail leads the police to Olaf H.
At the same time, 200,000 pieces of data are filtered out of the radio cell and evaluated. One of the cell phone histories corresponds exactly to the perpetrator’s reconstructed journey. It is the number of Olaf H., a 46-year-old father who lives just a few kilometers from Grefrath. The police found the crucial clues in his company car, a VW Passat.
On January 26, 2011 he was arrested. During the interrogation at the police station, he first tells the officers that Mirco was already dead when he found him the night he disappeared. Only later does he admit to having murdered the boy and leads the investigators to his corpse in a lonely forest. He tells how he blocked the boy’s path in his vehicle in the dark, pulled him off his bike and dragged him into his car. In a forest he had abused and strangled the student.
Here at this point in a forest not far from a busy main road, little Mirco’s body was buried
On September 29, 2011, the Krefeld Regional Court sentenced Olaf H. to life imprisonment and at the same time determined the particular gravity of his guilt. It usually extends the term of imprisonment by five to six years. “How this act could have happened could not be reliably clarified in this hearing,” says the presiding judge Herbert Luczak in the verdict. Although there are indications of sadism as a motivation, this was not provable.
In court, Olaf H. covered his face from the press photographers
© Volker Hartmann / Picture Alliance
Olaf H. had described numerous versions of the crime during his interrogations and in court. Much of this turned out to be lies. In his closing remarks he declared: “I am aware of what a terrible act I have committed. I do not expect forgiveness.” The family man, who was blameless until his crime, remained stubbornly silent about his motive. “The fact that the question of the motives remains unanswered will accompany the family for the rest of their lives,” said co-plaintiff Reinartz.
Case on Friday at “Aktenzeichen XY…solved!”
Two years after the crime, Mirco’s deeply believing parents publish a book about their son’s murder entitled “Despair. Trust. Forgive.” With our book we want to show what helped us to leave the spiral of hate and despair can”, quotes the publisher. Despite everything, they now lead a life that is supported by confidence, philanthropy and faith.
The Mirco case is the subject of the ZDF true crime series “Aktenzeichen XY…solven” on Friday, August 26 at 9:15 p.m. Moderator Sven Voss recapitulates the search for the culprit with Soko leader Ingo Thiel.
Sources: ZDF documentary “Disappeared without a trace”DPA