Waldmünchen / Cerchov – The eight-year-old girl Julia disappeared on Sunday during a family hike on the Bavarian-Czech border. Together with her brother and cousin, she moved away from her parents. The two boys could be found by emergency services – there is still no trace of Julia.
Rescue workers are currently combing the forest around the Czech mountain Cerchov (Schwarzkopf), where the family outing took place. Not an easy undertaking: At the time of the Iron Curtain, there were border surveillance towers on the mountain, and an impassable forest area stretches for kilometers around them. If you want to go to the next town, you have to walk for a long time.
The mountain on which Julia disappeared is in the middle of the Bohemian Forest – the next village is at least three kilometers awayPhoto: Google Earth
Intensive search measures are currently underway, said a spokesman for the Upper Palatinate police headquarters on Monday morning. Dog squadrons and two Bavarian police helicopters are on site, and a thermal imaging camera is also in use.
Julia S. is searched for on foot and by helicopter Photo: krimi-plzen.cz
Police spokesman Florian Beck to BILD: “We are currently working with around 30 detection dogs from all over Bavaria to find the girl.”
Blue jacket, jeans, red shoes: that’s what Julia S. is currently wearing. According to the police, she is not warmly dressed – despite freezing temperaturesPhoto: private
According to the investigators’ findings so far, the parents from Berlin were hiking with their two children and a nephew on the Cerchov near the Bavarian border town of Waldmünchen (Cham district) on Sunday. The children played and moved away from their parents.
Intensive searches have been underway on Cerchov Mountain since yesterday afternoonPhoto: krimi-plzen.cz
After the parents couldn’t find the children, they called rescue workers. A son and nephew of the family were found again, but the eight-year-old daughter had disappeared in the late afternoon.
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According to information from the Czech news agency CTK, around 200 police officers and firefighters are taking part in the search in the vicinity of Cerchov, the highest point in the Upper Palatinate Forest.
German and Czech emergency services are working flat out to find Julia S.Photo: krimi-plzen.cz
“We followed the route on which the family should have moved with the girl, but without success,” said the agency’s police spokeswoman. The search area will now be expanded. The area is forested, at night and in the morning the temperatures were around freezing point.