Missing 16-year-old: Julia W. found dead

Stuttgart Julia W. from Remshalden-Grunbach (Baden-Württemberg), who has been missing for a week and a half, is dead. During a search by the police in the Kirchheim unter Teck area, investigators found her body in Oberlenningen (Esslingen district) in the forest section “Auf dem Bol “ – about a kilometer from the tracks of the Teckbahn.

Late on Thursday evening, the securing of evidence in the thicket of the forest area was still ongoing. According to information from the FAZ, the police officers were able to provisionally identify the girl based on her clothing. She was apparently wearing the jacket with which she left her parents’ house in Grunbach at 6:30 a.m. on January 24.

The 16-year-old student attended grade 11 at the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium in the Sommerrain district of Stuttgart. She was actually supposed to be attending classes at the Catholic high school last Tuesday. But she never got there because that morning she had taken a regional train to Kirchheim unter Teck. There she probably boarded a train on the Teckbahn in the direction of Lenningen. After that, their trail was lost.

Possible witness identified

On Thursday, the investigators could not find any severe injuries on the body that could provide a clear indication of the cause of death. An autopsy is to clarify whether there was an external influence and a homicide or whether the 16-year-old may have committed suicide.

It is suspected that Julia W. could have made an acquaintance on January 22, two days before she disappeared, at a state league handball game in the Stegwiesenhalle in Geradstetten, which was fatal to her. On that day, the men’s handball team from SV Remshalden played against HSW Owen/Lenningen. Maybe she got to know a viewer better there.

She had written to her parents via Whatsapp that she would go to school, but she had told her friends the opposite. “We assumed all day that she would come home in the evening,” said the parents in an interview with SWR on Wednesday. When Julia could not be reached via Whatsapp in the evening, the father called the police.

The investigators set up an anonymous tip system that witnesses can use to report easily via the Internet. A man who had boarded the train with the missing person was identified as a possible witness.

The Red Cross, a helicopter and the mountain rescue service searched for her for days on sometimes difficult terrain. Finally, on Thursday there were several operations by a special task force in the region to apprehend the alleged perpetrator – unsuccessfully until the evening.

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