Cold case from Hamburg
“We hope that the perpetrator will reveal himself at some point – Hilal Ercan disappeared exactly 25 years ago
A bus in Hamburg-Lurup is postered with a large appeal for witnesses asking for information in connection with the disappearance of Hilal Ercan
© Daniel Reinhardt/archive image / DPA
The name Hilal Ercan is omnipresent in Hamburg-Lurup. Exactly 25 years ago, the girl disappeared while going to buy chewing gum. The case is considered one of the most puzzling cold cases in German criminal history.
However, it is still unclear to this day what happened to Hilal exactly 25 years ago; a body has never been found. “Despite all efforts, there is currently no defendant in this case,” said the spokeswoman for the Hamburg public prosecutor, Liddy Oechtering, to the German Press Agency. “We keep receiving tips that are being checked, but there are no solid leads.” Nationwide and across Europe, it is being examined whether there are parallels to other cases.
Hilal had gone to a neighboring shopping center around lunchtime on January 27, 1999 to buy chewing gum. She never returned. “We will not close the file,” emphasized Oechtering. “There is no statute of limitations on murder.” The public prosecutor’s office has offered a reward of 20,000 euros for information that leads to the investigation of the crime.
Sensational ARD documentary about Hilal Ercan
The family appeals to anyone who may have been in the know or previously unknown witnesses to come forward. A three-part ARD documentary about the Hilal case drew a lot of attention to the case a good year and a half ago. For months, journalists accompanied family members and friends of the family as they worked to get this cold case moving again. But even since then there has been hardly any new knowledge.
“We hope that the perpetrator will reveal himself at some point and that he won’t take the knowledge to the grave,” Hilal’s brother, Abbas Ercan, recently told dpa when asked. Because the family wants to know what happened to the girl. “Hopefully salvation will come soon.”
Anyone traveling in Hamburg-Lurup may have already seen the large poster on one of the VHH buses commemorating Hilal’s fate. Since 2021, a Hamburg-Holstein transport company bus has been covered with a call for witnesses.
Or perhaps passers-by noticed the little angel hanging from a wanted souvenir at the shopping center where Hilal was last seen at the end of January 1999. “Missing!” is written in large red letters on this board, a photo shows a smiling girl with long dark hair.
Hilal was born on September 22, 1988 in Hamburg; her family lived in the Lurup district at the time of her disappearance. On January 27, 1999, the girl went to the neighboring shopping center “Elbgaupassage” around lunchtime: The girl wanted to buy chewing gum with a D-Mark as a reward for her good half-year report. Even today it is difficult to understand how a child can disappear without a trace in the middle of the day in a busy place with many people.
And it is this uncertainty that makes it so difficult for her family to endure fate. “To this day we don’t have a grave where we can mourn,” says Hilal’s brother Abbas. The mother keeps a suitcase full of memorabilia. It is mainly opened in sad moments. “In terms of character, she was a protector and very helpful and courageous,” remembers the brother, who was twelve years old when Hilal disappeared, of his sister. After so many years, the family no longer has any hope that the girl is still alive.
The case took many turns over the years: In March 1999, for example, the police reported two drivers of a service car who said they had seen a corpulent man with thin red-blonde hair in the parking lot in front of the shopping center. He had a girl by his hand who looked similar to Hilal. A suspect identified in 2005 also confessed to having kidnapped and killed Hilal. However, he later withdrew his confession. The area was searched several times – in 2022, for example, investigators checked a property in Hamburg’s Volkspark without finding any new evidence.
Shortly after the child’s disappearance, the special commission at the time expanded its investigations to Turkey. According to police information from this time, they were checking whether the child had been abducted to the family’s former home country. Family members also temporarily came under suspicion at the time. One reason was contradictory information, which – as it later turned out – had a completely different background and nothing to do with the child’s disappearance.
The family’s relationship with the police has improved over the years
“The police had to follow up on every lead back then, which wasn’t nice for the family, but I no longer blame that today,” said Abbas Ercan. At times, the relationship with investigators was tense because the family’s frustration was so great that the case was still not resolved. “But today contact with the police is good and we trust that everything will be done to solve the case.”
Sources: dpa / ARD documentary “Where is Hilal”