Munich: Sonja Engelbrecht probably the victim of a sex crime – Munich

On April 11, 1995, the then 19-year-old Sonja Engelbrecht disappeared from Munich. without a trace. Until 25 years later, a forest worker discovered a bone 107 kilometers away near Kipfenberg in the Altmühltal. It took more than a year for investigators and family to be certain that it was the remains of the young woman. A year ago, the almost complete skeleton was discovered in a crevice in the rock. Since then, forensic scientists have bent over bones, rings and plastic fragments. A “cold case” before the Enlightenment?

In a special program on unsolved cases, the true crime series “Aktenzeichen XY” on Wednesday evening (8:15 p.m., ZDF) will address the murder of Sonja Engelbrecht. Already on Tuesday, Stephan Beer, head of the Munich Homicide Commission, presented the current state of affairs.

Accordingly, the young woman is believed to have become the victim of a sex criminal. Her body was wrapped in garbage bags and tarpaulins that had previously been used during construction or renovation work. “It can therefore be assumed that the perpetrator either renovated or built privately in 1995 or was also professionally active in this area,” said the police in the manhunt.

The officers also found a blue and black blanket with a striking plant pattern on the sides and the label reads “Acryl Velor”. What they did not find were the remains of clothing: the corpse was probably naked.

The back of the blanket found on the body. Anyone who recognizes the blanket or has a similar one should contact the police.

(Photo: Police Bavaria)

The murder commission assumes that the perpetrator probably had or still has a connection to Kipfenberg or the Ingolstadt/Eichstätt area. For example, a place of residence, a job or even a vacation can be considered, tells the police.

But what the meticulous search for clues in the Altmühltal and in the laboratory was not able to answer: Did the perpetrator specifically watch Sonja Engelbrecht, who is said to have been on her way home after visiting a pub and an evening with friends, near Stiglmaierplatz? There have already been hints after a TV show about the case, 21 years ago.

At that time, several women got in touch and reported that a man had approached them in Munich that night in April. Sonja Engelbrecht is also said to have felt watched on the way home, a friend said.

Was a serial killer the killer?

The theory that Sonja Engelbrecht could have been the victim of a serial killer who repeatedly murdered in the 1990s and who has not been caught to this day is more than a rumor. The Munich investigators are also pursuing this hypothesis – as one of several possible leads. So far, however, they have not found any concrete evidence of this.

In 2010, the head of the Munich Homicide Commission at the time, the late Josef Wilfling, denied a connection between three apparently similar cases.

But there are certainly parallels. After visiting a pub in the Neuhausen district, Kristin H., 28, disappeared without a trace on the night of December 13, 1991. Four months later, walkers found a woman’s leg in a plastic bag in a forest near Neubiberg, and in the summer of 1992 her arm was discovered in a Landshut Isar power plant. There has been no trace of Bettina T., 45, since August 12, 1997. She, too, is said to have been out and about in Munich’s nightlife that evening.

In January’s “Aktenzeichen” broadcast, a crime against a student from Freiburg in 1997 particularly occupied the audience. The young woman was probably dragged into a van on the way home, tortured and finally murdered. “Both in the XY studio and at the Rottweil detective, the phones didn’t stand still after the broadcast of the report,” reports ZDF. Above all, the callers were able to give information about the possible perpetrator vehicle, which according to witnesses is said to have been light beige. This case is also reminiscent of the disappearance of Sonja Engelbrecht.

The location where Sonja Engelbrecht’s remains were found provides clues to the perpetrator. Because the forest above the small hamlet of Engelgrösdorf is not a place that anyone happens to pass by. In May 2020, a meteorite seeker found the remains of two murdered young people in Birktal near Kipfenberg, Sabine P., 23, and Eugen S., 21, from Ingolstadt. They have been missing since September 22, 2002. This case is still unsolved to this day. Four people were initially held in custody, but they had to be released. The Ingolstadt investigators suspected the perpetrators in the drug scene.

But there is one crucial difference to the Sonja Engelbrecht case. The road leads through the Birktal from the Autobahn exit Denkendorf to Kipfenberg. The location of the mortal remains near such a connecting road is to be expected. But Engelgrösdorf?

The narrow cul-de-sac leads nowhere, ending about a hundred meters from the crevice in the rock where the perpetrator dumped the young woman’s body. The popular Altmühltal panorama trail runs a little below. But this tourist trail was only created in 2005. Ten years after the perpetrator chose the remote wooded area as a hiding place for his dead victim.

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