File number XY: Cold Case from 2002 – Who is the dead woman from the Weser?

Police are looking for new clues
File number XY with Cold Case from Bremen: Who is the dead woman from the Weser?

This facial reconstruction was made by the Bremen investigators: This is what the dead woman should have looked like when she was alive

© Police Bremen

In July 2002, a bundle of carpets was found in a small marina near Bremen’s Weser Stadium. Wrapped in it: the half-naked corpse of a young woman. Their identity and the background to the crime have not been clarified to this day. On Wednesday, the case is the subject of “Aktenzeichen XY”.

The police investigators in Bremen are hoping for new clues in a more than 20-year-old cold case. On July 30, 2002, the body of a woman was found near the Bremen Weser Stadium in the harbor of the Weser Sailing Association. She is wrapped in a rug, dressed only in light-colored children’s cotton panties. Her body was previously wrapped in bubble wrap, a plastic bag, and a linen cloth with adhesive tape. As it turns out, she had been floating in the water for a good four weeks. It is unclear whether the body was floated there or even launched there. What is certain is that the victim suffered trauma to the neck.

According to coroner’s estimates, the petite woman, 1.67 meters tall and weighing around 50 kilograms, was between 22 and 35 years old at the time of death. She has half-length, dark blonde, wavy hair – possibly permed – and neat, purple painted fingernails. Investigations show that the woman is believed to have given birth to at least one child who was born between 1985 and 1999.

Wanted poster by the Bremen police with a picture of the dead, the carpet and jewellery

On a wanted poster, the police show the carpet in which the young woman was wrapped, as well as a bobby pin and an earring

© Police Bremen

Her silver earring with a red stone comes from Kharkov in the Ukraine, where it was manufactured in 1956 by a so-called jewel combine. However, the jewelry may also have been sold in neighboring countries in Eastern Europe or Russia. She also wears a gold colored disposable ear stud with a dark stone and a clip in her hair with a bright green butterfly as an adornment.

Cold case from Altena on Wednesday topic at “Aktenzeichen XY”

As the coroners find out, she had dental work just a few months before her death. This may be a temporary filling with the aim of further treatment.

Even after more than 20 years, the police are still groping in the dark. Who is the woman and who killed her? The police and the public prosecutor’s office in Bremen are now hoping for new information from the population. The head of the “Carpet” murder commission, Rabea Berstermann, presented the case on Wednesday evening (16 August) on the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY”. A $5,000 reward is being offered for information that helps solve the case.

Sources: Police Bremen, BKA

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