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A police car in a forest in Lenningen
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
A body has been discovered in Baden-Württemberg.
This was announced by the police headquarters in Reutlingen and the public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart.
The female body was therefore found in the area of the municipality of Lenningen in the district of Esslingen.
The identification is still pending.
As the "Bild" and the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" report, the dead person is said to be a missing 16-year-old from near Stuttgart.
She had been searched for in the area.
The police did not want to confirm this when asked by SPIEGEL.
Enlarge image
A police officer in a forest in Lenningen
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
The Red Cross, a helicopter and the mountain rescue team searched in vain for the 16-year-old for days on sometimes difficult terrain.
According to the police, a search operation between Kirchheim unter Teck and Oberlenningen was pending on Thursday – the officers found the body during this operation.
According to the authorities, a special commission with 35 officers was set up to clarify the circumstances of death.
Man identified as a witness
The missing youth from Remshalden in the Rems-Murr district disappeared more than a week ago.
She left her parents' house on January 24, but instead of going to her school, she took the train to Kirchheim unter Teck.
From there she boarded the Teckbahn in the direction of Lenningen - around 30 kilometers south of Remshalden.
After that, their trail was lost.
"According to our information, the missing person deliberately did not go to school on Tuesday - she probably told schoolmates that," said a police spokesman.
Most recently, the investigators had set up a so-called anonymous tip system, with the help of which witnesses can easily report via the Internet.
A man was identified as a witness on Thursday, the spokesman said.
He got on the train with the missing person and could possibly provide information about where the girl wanted to go.
The person concerned is not a suspect.
hba/dpa