There is still no trace of the eleven-year-old girl from a foster family who disappeared in Swabia in mid-October. “We are currently still looking,” said a police spokesman on Wednesday. “So far there has not been a hot lead.” The investigators are also looking for the biological parents of the child. The parents are said to be close to the controversial sect “Twelve Tribes”. The police are investigating clues that the two may have taken their daughter away. The investigators had initially classified a corresponding e-mail from the environment of the “twelve tribes” to the foster parents of the child as credible.
The child disappeared while jogging in Holzheim in the Dillingen district in mid-October and never returned home to her foster parents. The girl had lived in the foster family for eight years after she and numerous other children were taken out of the “Twelve Tribes” community by the authorities on charges of beatings against the sect. The sect regards the chastening of children as an appropriate method of education. After custody disputes with youth welfare offices for a total of 40 children in 2013, the “twelve tribes” dissolved their community in northern Swabia and emigrated to the Czech Republic. “We have checked what contact points we know there so far,” said a police spokesman. “But we’re not giving up because of that.”