Missing person at “Aktenzeichen XY”
Schoolgirl disappeared without a trace in 1977: the police are looking for new clues in the Anja B case.
45 years after the disappearance of Anja B., the police are still looking for clues – on Wednesday with a call to “Aktenzeichen XY…unsolved”
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“Aktenzeichen XY…unsolved” shows a case this Wednesday that has puzzled investigators to this day: in 1977, 16-year-old Anja B. from the Cuxhaven district disappeared from the disco without a trace. In the years that followed, five more women disappeared, whose whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
On Friday, October 7, 1977, Anja B. from Midlum drove to the “Moustache” in Bremerhaven with her friend to celebrate. The 18-year-old moves to another restaurant from time to time. When he comes back to the disco after half an hour, the 16-year-old has disappeared. The police believe that the high school student wanted to hitchhike home. But she never got there.
In several motorway service stations, the officials later found paper towels on which someone hastily scrawled: “I need help, Anja”. Is it the Anja B. you are looking for? Years later, a girl shows up in a “Beate Uhse” shop in Munich and shows the saleswoman Anja B.’s ID card to prove that she is of legal age. So is Anja B. still alive? Or just someone else using their papers?
After going to the disco in 1977, Anja B. has disappeared to this day
When participants in a tour group from their home town think they recognize them in a belly dance show in Morocco, no one in the group reacts. However, the officers of the criminal police in Schiffdorf, a small town near Bremerhaven, follow the village gossip, get the list of participants and telephone until they have a photo of the belly dancer. “She looked very similar to Anja,” said the chief inspector at the time in an interview with the star. “Even her mother thought so.” They contact their colleagues from North Africa via Interpol – and they actually track down the belly dancer. But it’s not Anja B.
The student is gone. Til today. Is it possible that she fell victim to a serial killer? In the years that followed, six other young women who were hitchhiking disappeared from the region between Bremen and Cuxhaven alone. Only one of them is later found drowned in a ditch.
Was she the victim of a serial killer? Or is there another explanation? In the years that followed, five more young women disappeared in the region:
- On June 7, 1978, Angelika Kielmann disappeared. The 18-year-old was in the disco “Zur Börse” in Cuxhaven. She is last seen hitchhiking around 11pm.
- On May 16, 1979, Anke Linienbach disappeared. The 19-year-old is also missing after a visit to the “Zur Börse” disco.
- On November 30, 1980, Andrea Martens disappeared. The 19-year-old no longer appears after visiting her boyfriend in Garlstedt. She, too, is said to have been known as a hitchhiker.
- On August 14, 1982, Christina Bohle disappeared. The 15-year-old visits the “KASBA” disco in Beverstedt-Heerstedt and is last seen at the back entrance. She too wanted to hitchhike home.
- On June 13, 1986, Jutta Schneefuss disappeared. The 25-year-old was last seen hitchhiking in Loxstedt. She is the mother of a then five-year-old daughter.
Disappeared young women on Wednesday’s topic at “Aktenzeichen XY”
The Cuxhaven police presented these cases on Wednesday, October 12th, in the program “Aktenzeichen XY…unsolved”. “In all cases we work closely with the relatives. They also expressed the wish to go public again,” says Rainer Brenner, head of the Cold Case investigation group, in a press release. “We are now taking the time and trying to shed light on the darkness. The relatives want certainty and we would like to support the goal mentioned.”
Watch the video: Nahlah Saimeh is a forensic psychiatrist and gave detailed information about her profession in the STERN CRIME Masterclass. In part one of the recording, she deals with the question of whether anyone can become a murderer and what the warning signs of homicide in relationships are.
Sources: star archive, Police in Cuxhaven