Turn of the year - Cold cases in Lower Saxony: hope for clarification remains
"Searches in missing persons case from 1992" or "Police resume investigation into murder case from 1977" - headlines like these from Lower Saxony always give rise to hope. Investigators regularly take on so-called "cold cases" in order to possibly gain certainty after all. According to the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior, there were recently 375 such cases in the state.
Cold cases are often unsolved homicides or missing persons cases with a criminal background. The latest data for unsolved homicides is 328; the remaining cases are missing persons cases, according to Oliver Rickwärtz, spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior. According to him, the number of cases comes from 2022 and is unchanged compared to the previous year. There is no data yet for 2023 because the survey is only carried out once a year.
However, the headlines above make it clear that cold cases also played an important role in investigative work in 2023. Just a few days ago, investigators approached residents of the Hanover region with posters, flyers and a reward of 5,000 euros in order to obtain information about the murder of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in 1985. The body of the missing Ulla L. was found by two walkers on the afternoon of February 10, 1985.
However, as Rickwärtz said, it is not only the identification and conviction of a perpetrator that is decisive for the evaluation of the work as a success. According to him, reopening investigations often means that the crime has not been forgotten by the families and friends of the victims. This provides comfort and helps with the processing process. In individual cases, the processing of a case also leads to connections with other crimes being uncovered, said Rickwärtz.
However, new technical possibilities - especially in forensics - are of great importance for late clarification, said the ministry spokesperson. According to him, these include advanced methods of DNA analysis, the research-capable digitization of old investigation files and airborne laser scanning. The latter refers to the scanning of a terrain surface with a laser beam from an airplane. Without these further developments, new cold case investigations would be less promising.
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Source: www.stern.de
