After new DNA evidence in the unsolved murder of 13-year-old Sonja Hurler in 1981, investigators in the Allgäu region called on hundreds of men to provide saliva samples. Between 200 and 300 men who lived in a Kempten district near where the body was found were affected, the Swabia South/West police headquarters said on Friday. During a series examination, their DNA should be compared with the traces.
According to the police, the victim got into an argument with his mother in a restaurant on the night of July 5, 1981 after attending the Kempten city festival. The 13-year-old then set off alone on foot to his grandmother’s house in another part of the city. But the girl never got there. His body was found three months later under a barn.
According to investigators, several residents of the Thingers district heard cries for help from a young girl on the night of the crime. In addition, eyewitnesses observed a group of four to six male youths dragging a girl through the district who was calling for help. “The clear cause of death could never be determined due to the condition of the body. We assume that there was a previous sexual offense,” said Kempten public prosecutor Katrin Eger at a press conference on Friday. The investigators also hoped for new witnesses.