Lower Saxony
Police are planning another search for six-year-olds
A police sonar boat searching for Arian on the Oste on April 29th. photo
© Daniel Bockwoldt/dpa
There is still no trace of the autistic boy from Bremervörde who disappeared around three weeks ago. Now the investigators want to interview residents again and search the Oste River.
Around three weeks after the disappearance of six-year-old Arian, the investigators want to go to the north Lower Saxony’s search for the autistic child will be intensified again. “We now don’t understand why the boy isn’t found somewhere,” police spokesman Heiner van der Werp told the German Press Agency on Monday. Many people were out and about along the Oste River on the sunny long weekend.
Another search operation on the river is planned this week. “We will also use technical equipment,” said the spokesman. As a second measure, the residents of the towns near Arian’s home in Bremervörde-Elm will be asked again whether they have made any observations. “It will be a kind of door cleaning,” said van der Werp.
The autistic boy has been missing since April 22nd. Police believe he left home on his own. For a week, hundreds of emergency services and volunteers searched day and night on land, in the air and in the water for Arian. Search dogs, a cavalry squadron, helicopters, drones, a tornado plane, an amphibious vehicle, boats and divers were used. At the end of April, the police initially stopped the active search. A group of five investigators is continuing to work on the case and following up on clues.
The uncertainty is very stressful for the relatives and everyone involved, said the police spokesman. An accident still seems most likely because Arian left his home alone on the evening of April 22nd. Footage from a private surveillance camera shows the six-year-old running towards the forest. But investigations are being carried out in all directions, said the spokesman: “We have never ruled out the possibility that he was kidnapped.”
Police message dated May 8, 2024