When looking for a missing boy in the Ruhr area, the investigators may not have checked a crucial clue. This was received in July after the program "Case number XY ... unresolved", the police said.
The 15-year-old disappeared in June 2017. His mother searched for him with great effort, ran a Facebook group and appeared on the ZDF program "Aktenzeichen". Investigators found the boy by accident during a house search last week. He was in the closet of a man under investigation for the spread of child pornography (read more about it here).
After the "file number" broadcast at the end of July, a notice had already been received that the boy was in the suspect's apartment in Recklinghausen, the police said. It is currently being examined whether the Duisburg police have followed up on the notice with the "required consequence". The prosecutor was also involved, said a police spokesman in Recklinghausen.
"The notice has been filed without further measures," said a Duisburg police spokesman. In order to clarify how this could have happened, Duisburg requested the boy's file from the colleagues in Recklinghausen. In addition, colleagues would have to be interviewed. A result will probably only be available after Christmas, said the Duisburg police spokesman.
Christmas in the psychiatric ward
The 44-year-old from Recklinghausen is now in custody. The 15-year-old came to a youth psychiatric clinic, where he also spends Christmas.
The man had already been sentenced to a ten-month suspended sentence in March 2018 for possession of child pornography. Investigators from the Commissioner for Sexual Offenses had once again targeted the 44-year-old's apartment, this time again about suspicion of spreading images of child sexual abuse. The youth discovered by accident in the closet has been in the suspect's home for at least the past two years, a prosecutor said.