police
Missing 12-year-old from Freudenberg is dead
A police officer blocks the place where a female body was found near Freudenberg
© Roberto Pfeil / DPA
The twelve-year-old who has been missing in Freudenberg since Saturday is dead. The police announced this after the body was found at noon.
A twelve-year-old girl from Freudenberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, who has been missing since Saturday evening, was found dead on Sunday. This was announced by the Koblenz police. The girl’s body was discovered by police near Freudenberg in Rhineland-Palatinate at noon. For reasons of investigation tactics, no information can be given about the cause of death, it said.
The police and fire brigade had been looking for the child with great force since Saturday evening. On Sunday afternoon, police officers discovered a female body, according to the Siegen police, in a forest above Freudenberg-Hohenhain.
Missing found dead in forest
The Koblenz police said the location was near the former Wildenburg train station, within the area of responsibility of the Betzdorf police station, right on the border with North Rhine-Westphalia. The investigative authorities initially left open whether it was the missing twelve-year-old. This was only officially confirmed in the evening.
The child was last seen on Saturday around 5:30 p.m. in Freudenberg, when it was walking home after visiting a friend. The shortest way between the girlfriend and the girl’s home – in the same city – is through a piece of forest. Freudenberg is located on the state border with Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs to the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein.
Intensive search for a twelve-year-old from Freudenberg
Area search dogs and “mantrailer” dogs specializing in people were also involved in the search. During the night, a helicopter with a thermal imaging camera flew over the area. The search went on all night long. On Sunday morning, the forces of a hundred of the Cologne riot police were added. The police also released a photo of the child. The body was reported just before 2:00 p.m.
The Siegen criminal police had already started investigating the site when it turned out that the site was in Rhineland-Palatinate. Officers from the Koblenz criminal police then set off. The Koblenz Criminal Investigation Department took over the investigation.
Further source:Message from the police headquarters in Koblenz.