Investigations - 70-year-old allegedly responsible for series of extortions
A 70-year-old man from the Hanover area is allegedly responsible for a 31-year-long series of extortion attempts. As the public prosecutor's office and the criminal investigation department reported on Thursday in Kempten, the suspect is said to have threatened food manufacturers and hotel operators throughout Germany with a letter bomb in around 360 cases using handwritten postcards. The man demanded 500,000 euros in each case, but did not get in touch afterwards. The series began in 1992.
"The motive is still completely unclear," said Josef Ischwang, head of the Kempten criminal investigation department. Investigators got on the trail of the 70-year-old because the postcards were sent in the Hanover area. The criminal investigation department in Kempten became active after there were also several blackmail cards that arrived at businesses in the Allgäu region.
Assuming that the man was also sending other mail, the officers in Lower Saxony had mail items monitored in a distribution center and successfully matched the handwriting on the envelopes with the blackmail letters. It was then possible to prove that the DNA of the suspect, who had previously been inconspicuous under criminal law, matched traces found on 70 postcards. The public prosecutor's office has not applied for an arrest warrant for the alleged blackmailer because there is no risk of flight.
Press release on the hearing
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The investigations leading to the suspect's identification initially began in Hanover due to the postcards' origin. The 70-year-old's DNA was later found on 70 postcards, providing key evidence to the case, as handled by the public prosecutor's office in Kempten. Despite being from Bavaria, specifically Hanover, there was no risk of flight, allowing the suspect to remain under criminal law observation in his hometown.
Source: www.stern.de
