Found with injuries
Missing five-year-old in Berlin is dead – police arrest 19-year-old
A forensic technology vehicle from the Berlin police is parked in Pankow
© Paul Zinken / DPA
After hours of searching, passers-by find a missing girl lifeless in the park. Rescue workers fight for his life. Vain. The police suspect a crime and arrest a young man. But there are still many questions.
After the death of a five-year-old girl in Berlin, the police are continuing their investigation into the background. The arrested suspect should be questioned on Wednesday, said a police spokesman. At first it was unclear whether the German-Turkish 19-year-old would comment.
The young man was arrested on Tuesday after passers-by found the missing girl lifeless in the Pankow public park. The child was taken to the hospital by helicopter. There it died. The police initially gave the girl’s age as four years old, but later corrected this.
According to the Berlin police, the five-year-old had injuries
“It showed injuries where you have to assume that it’s a homicide where it’s in the room,” said the police spokesman late Tuesday evening. The arrested 19-year-old has a connection to the girl, who has German-Polish-Turkish citizenship. However, he did not say what relationship the victim and the arrested person had to each other.
A homicide squad has taken over the investigation. Police officers had secured traces in the Pankow Citizens Park until late in the evening. Now possible witnesses are to be questioned. The girl’s body is also to be autopsied.
Before the five-year-old disappeared, according to the police, it was said to have been seen in Paule Park behind the Rathaus-Center. From there it is only a few hundred meters to the later site. What exactly happened is still unclear. As the RBB reported, the police were looking for the child with almost 100 emergency services and a helicopter at times.
After the girl’s death, people near the place where she was found put candles, a yellow flower and a small stuffed animal were put down. Berlin’s governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) reacted with dismay. “My thoughts are with the little girl’s parents and their loved ones. It breaks my heart and I am deeply saddened,” she wrote on Twitter.