Tobias D. from Eichenried, who has been missing since Friday, is probably dead. On Tuesday evening, a dead person was found in Lake Eching, who was very likely to be the 25-year-old who disappeared after the “Brass Wiesn”, said the police headquarters in Upper Bavaria North just after 9 p.m. with.
According to the press release, rescue workers were informed around 6.45 p.m. about a lifeless young man floating on the lake. Bathers brought him ashore before the rescue service arrived. There, the emergency doctor could only determine the death of the man.
According to the police, the appearance, clothing and personal belongings of the dead matched the description of Tobias D., who had been missing since Friday. The criminal police Erding has taken over the investigation to clarify the cause of death.
Throughout Tuesday, friends, volunteers and a large contingent of police were still looking for 25-year-old Tobias D. in an unprecedented campaign. The young man was on Friday disappeared without a trace after visiting the Echinger Brass Wiesn. The calls for help on the social media channels have meanwhile blown up all dimensions, with millions of people sharing the search calls. A good 500 private helpers had gathered on the site itself on Monday alone. On Tuesday, 70 police officers combed the campsite and the shore area of the lake. “We turn every stone,” said Andreas Aichele, spokesman for the police headquarters in Upper Bavaria-North, at a press event on Tuesday. But the search for Tobias D. was initially unsuccessful.
The number of supporters on Instagram and Tiktok grew every minute
The man from Moosinning in the Erding district was with friends at the Echinger Brass Wiesn on Friday evening, since then there has been no trace of him. His friends had lost sight of him around 9 p.m., and shortly afterwards the telephone contact broke off. They reported him missing on Saturday morning.
After a wide-ranging search by the police and private helpers, the 25-year-old’s girlfriend, Anna Milena Lux, posted five pictures of the missing person on Instagram on Monday – the post had around 75,000 likes and more than 1,500 comments on Tuesday morning. Her account, which was previously followed by only a few hundred people, is now followed by almost 70,000. More were added every minute. The Tiktokerin Charlotte Schüler, a friend of the missing person, had uploaded seven videos to Tiktok at the time. The most clicked one had 2.1 million views.
With teary eyes and a trembling voice, she filmed herself and called on her followers to help. Her first sentence is almost always “Please don’t scroll any further, here are the most important information about Tobi” or “Don’t scroll any further if you come from Munich and the surrounding area.” The video background was always a photo of D. smiling at the camera in traditional costume. “The new theory is that he went into town during Friday’s storm and maybe took shelter and can’t get out,” said student in one of her videos. She called on Echinger citizens to check private property, to look in huts or barns, in vain, as we now know.
One of the posts was shared more than 16,500 times
D’s friend Anna Milena Lux also regularly posted calls for searches and new information in her story on Instagram, and made search calls on television cameras. Lux shared a missing person report on Facebook for the first time on Saturday at 3:12 p.m. She reported there eight times, posting map images of search locations and information about her boyfriend. One of the posts was shared more than 16,500 times.
Police spokesman Andreas Aichele stood in front of his car in the half-dismantled backstage area of the festival late Tuesday morning and pointed to the hood in front of a crowd of journalists. A colored map of the area was stuck there – blue the lake, green the bushes and brown the large campsite.
The area around the Brass Wiesn festival site was searched again and “every stone was turned individually” on the campsite, as Aichele said. Riot police and forces from Nuremberg and Munich, a total of around 70 police officers were on duty. The shore area of the lake was also intensively searched on Tuesday. It should be ruled out that the 25-year-old is lying there, perhaps “in an awkward position,” says Aichele. “We want to be sure: He can’t be here.” The lake itself had already been searched by helicopter, with very good and very deep images being taken, Aichele said. But unfortunately there was no indication of the whereabouts of Tobias D. – until he was found by the swimmers. Aichele’s hope that the missing person would be found alive that afternoon was not fulfilled.
Around 8 a.m. on Tuesday, the police cars arrived at the Brass Wiesn campsite.
(Photo: Marco Einfeldt)
The riot police meticulously searched the area in a long chain – without success.
(Photo: Marco Einfeldt)
Helpers had also set up a base at the parking lot of the nearby Hollerner See.
(Photo: Marco Einfeldt)