Saxony-Anhalt
Missing 19-year-old Kezhia found dead at gravel pit – police arrest 42-year-old friend
Among other things, the police were looking for 19-year-old Kezhia from Klötze in Saxony-Anhalt with this photo
© Police Inspectorate Stendal
“Minor criminal investigation” brought the breakthrough in the case of the missing Kezhia. The police arrested a 42-year-old who is said to have killed the young woman from Klötze in Saxony-Anhalt.
The 19-year-old Kezhia H. from Klötze in the Altmark district of Salzwedel in northern Saxony-Anhalt, who has been missing since the beginning of March, is dead. The body of the young woman was discovered on Thursday during a search operation in neighboring Lower Saxony, said a spokesman for the Stendal public prosecutor. The 42-year-old alleged friend of the victim was arrested. The “Bild” newspaper reported first.
According to the investigation, the two wanted to visit the Bundesliga game between VfL Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt together on the weekend of the disappearance, Kezhia H. left the parental home on Saturday afternoon (March 4) to be picked up by Tino B. at a bus stop. It is not known why they wanted to drive to Wolfsburg, just under an hour’s drive away, the day before the game. The 42-year-old quickly came under suspicion of having something to do with Kezhia’s disappearance. On March 23, investigators searched the man’s apartment – the evidence was not sufficient for an arrest warrant at the time, and there was also no confession or a corpse.
Police searched for Kezhia for weeks
The police searched for the missing person with great effort and in several federal states, among other things, a tracking dog was used and the mobile phone data and social media accounts of the young woman were evaluated. The investigators launched a public search, and the authorities contacted the media several times.
In the MDR program “Kripo live”, the police recently asked for information about a white VW Crafter delivery van with the logo of a building technology company from Braunschweig, the suspect’s employer. B. stated that Kezhia was dropped off in Wolfsburg and then drove to Braunschweig, the uncle of the dead told the search magazine. When he returned to the agreed meeting point in Wolfsburg, the 19-year-old did not appear. Only four days later did B. report his girlfriend to the police as missing, while her mother Kezhia thought she was in safe hands with Tino B.
In the end, it was the suspect’s contradictions in his interrogations and the white van that led the officers back to the track of the 42-year-old. “Through the smallest criminal work, the investigators created a distance-time calculation using the tachograph from the company vehicle,” they said after he was arrested again. According to the information, the vehicle data and witness statements finally led to a gravel plant in the Lower Saxony municipality of Bahrdorf (Helmstedt district) – there the police discovered the body of the missing person early Thursday evening.
Kezhia, known to friends as Kessi, trained as a confectioner and volunteered at the local sports club VfB 07 Klötze, including as a soccer referee. According to media reports, she met her 42-year-old boyfriend at the club. Tino B. trained the youth there – a local newspaper dedicated a portrait to him in the past, describing him as positively “crazy”. The electrician and Eintracht Frankfurt fan is therefore a family man.
A motive of the alleged perpetrator for the killing of the young woman is not known. The investigators also gave no information on the cause of death, and the body is now to be autopsied. The public prosecutor’s office is sure that this time they have enough evidence. Later on Friday she wants to apply for an arrest warrant because of the urgent suspicion of manslaughter against Tino B.
Sources: Police station Stendal (1), Police station Stendal (2), Police station Wolfsburg-Helmstedt, “Bild newspaper”, “Criminal Police Live”“Volksstimme”, news agency DPA and AFP