Disappeared for five years
Criminalist: Clarification in the Rebecca case is still possible
A young girl sticks leaflets on a lamp post. photo
© Christoph Soeder/dpa
Rebecca from Berlin-Neukölln has been missing for five years. To this day there is no trace of the girl. However, one criminalist is optimistic.
Five years after the then 15-year-old Rebecca’s disappearance, the Bremen criminalist and profiler shows up Axel Petermann is optimistic that the case can still be solved. “I always think there is a chance for a late clarification,” Petermann told the German Press Agency. “I’m optimistic and think you have to keep trying. You also need luck and certain conditions,” said the criminalist, who was deputy head of a Bremen murder squad for a long time.
Whether investigations into such “cold cases” are successful depends on several factors. For example, it depends on the intensity of further investigations and new leads that emerge, said Petermann. But according to the criminologist, even old evidence can be given new explosiveness thanks to modern technical possibilities.
The then 15-year-old Rebecca disappeared on the morning of February 18, 2019 in the Britz district in the Berlin-Neukölln district. According to the family and police, the girl spent the night at her sister and brother-in-law’s house. To date she has not been found alive or dead. Since then, a murder commission from the Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA) has been investigating. Rebecca’s brother-in-law is still under suspicion.
A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office told the German Press Agency: “There is no news in the Rebecca case.” The brother-in-law is still listed as the accused. Further information received occasionally from the public will be followed up. “So far nothing has proven to be effective,” said the spokesman. There are currently no further calls for witnesses planned, as the issue is already a concern for the public.