Attendorn is actually known for two things: the Bigge reservoir, a popular excursion destination, and the Atta cave, which is considered one of the largest and most beautiful stalactite caves in Germany.
But for a few days now, the 25,000-inhabitant town in Sauerland has also been the code for a shocking criminal case: An eight-year-old girl is said to have been held captive by her mother and grandparents in a house in Attendorn for almost her whole life. The primary school-age child, who has never seen the inside of a school, was freed from the family home at the end of September and placed with a foster family. The responsible youth welfare office assumes that the child has not been allowed to leave the building since it was one and a half years old. “She was slowly led down the stairs. A policeman supported her,” said a neighbor to the mirror told. The child should be doing well “according to the circumstances,” said the public prosecutor’s office in Siegen.
But what does that mean in the face of seven years lost, a stolen childhood? The girl has never before seen a meadow or a forest, met other children or sat in a car, she is said to have told the doctors who examined her. Where exactly it is in the house and how it has had to spend its life so far has not been made public.
Signs of sedentary lifestyle
The child can read and count. However, there are “restrictions in the musculoskeletal system” that are shown, for example, when climbing stairs and are probably due to a lack of exercise, said the responsible senior public prosecutor Patrick Baron von Grotthuss. So far there have been no indications of sexual abuse, maltreatment or malnutrition. The department head of the youth welfare office in the district of Olpe, Michael Färber, told the German Press Agency that the focus is now on the question: “What does the child want?”
The mother and grandparents are being investigated for mistreatment of those in charge and deprivation of liberty because they had not allowed the girl to “participate in life” for almost seven years, as the public prosecutor put it.
Many questions are still unanswered: How could three adults lock a little girl away unnoticed for years in a house in the middle of a middle-class residential area? Was it really a custody battle? What role did the youth welfare office play?
Alleged move to Italy
When the girl was born in 2013, her parents were no longer a couple. In 2015, the mother sued for sole custody and, according to an entry in the register of residents, moved to Calabria with her child. Probably to make it much more difficult for the father to have contact with the child. But the two of them probably never lived in Italy, where the girl’s grandfather came from, but stayed in Attendorn. Why did the father never visit his child, who supposedly lived in Italy for seven years, even though he and the mother both retained custody according to the 2016 court decision? The father’s sister told WAZ that he regularly sent gifts to Italy – but they came back unopened. When the girl’s mother was seen in Attendorn, it was said that she was on a short vacation with her parents.
The investigations are still in the early stages. It is also about the question of who is partly to blame for the fact that the child could be locked up for so long. Authorities, maybe neighbors? And certainly everyone who knew about the girl – and yet did nothing.
Employees of the youth welfare office rang the doorbell twice – and were brushed off by the grandparents.
(Photo: Markus Klümper/dpa)
The youth welfare office had received individual anonymous tips about the family since October 2020, employees then rang the doorbell twice in Attendorn – and were brushed off. In a message from the youth welfare office It says that allegations of a possible endangerment of the child’s well-being “could not be substantiated. There was no evidence that the child does not live in Italy”. However, the girl could only be freed through tips provided by a couple in July 2022. The district of Olpe says the couple have “no direct connection to the families”, but they have expressed reasonable suspicion that the child would be held captive.
The public prosecutor’s office in Siegen is investigating possible misconduct by the youth welfare office. In the coming week, the family committee of the NRW state parliament will deal with the case.