Ms. Resch will disappear without a trace in 2021 – "My hope is that she didn't have to suffer"

Created: 09/21/2022, 13:56

By: Katrin Woitsch

A memory of his sister: Hubert Sendl often looks at the photo that shows Waltraud Resch shortly before she disappeared.

To this day he does not know how his sister died.

© ralph ruder

On March 6, 2021, Waltraud Resch disappeared without a trace.

The 74-year-old had dementia.

Her fate is not unique.

But there are too few ways to protect people with dementia.

Peißenberg/Dießen - When Hubert Sendl stands at his parents' grave in Peißenberg, he thinks of his sister Waltraud.

She is probably no longer alive, but there is no tombstone commemorating her either.

Her body was never found.

What happened to her has never been clarified.

Here, at his parents' grave, Hubert Sendl often feels close to her.

"My big hope is that she didn't have to suffer," he says.

Sometimes he is afraid that he will find out what happened to his sister and that this hope will also be taken away from him.

Peißenberg: The 74-year-old disappeared more than a year ago

74-year-old Waltraud Resch is missing.

She suffers from dementia and needs to be cared for accordingly.

She is 158 cm tall, has graying hair, is wearing a burgundy sweater, probably slippers and is carrying a black handbag.

The Diessen police published this missing person report on March 6, 2021. Waltraud Resch was never found.

One of the last people she met was an employee at a coffee shop.

She wanted to buy a piece of bee sting, but had no money with her - but chocolate.

She traded it for the cake.

Then she left the cafe.

The employee later reported to the police when she learned that the elderly woman was being searched for.

But at that time there was no trace of the 74-year-old.

If a child just disappeared from a day care center, all hell would break loose.

Dementia sufferers find it just as difficult as children to correctly assess dangers.

Edith Church

"My sister suffered from dementia," says her 73-year-old brother.

After the death of her husband, her condition continued to deteriorate.

Her children sought a place in a nursing home for her.

She had to move from her home in Peißenberg in the Weilheim-Schongau district to Dießen am Ammersee.

Her siblings suspect she thought she was there on vacation.

She kept disappearing from the home.

She was always found shortly thereafter.

Just not on March 6th.

Waltraud Resch, who was suffering from dementia, kept disappearing from her home

The police searched for her for two days – with sniffer dogs and helicopters.

Without finding a trace.

But what the investigators did too late: evaluate the images from the surveillance cameras at the train station near the café.

They are only stored for two days, explains Sendl.

He can imagine that his sister wanted to go back to Peißenberg and got on a train without direction.

Whether it was so, he will probably never know.

By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter.

"I've always thought people don't just disappear without a trace," he says.

The idea that his sister could have been the victim of a crime or had fallen and been lying there injured for several days is hard for him to bear.

The search was called off after two days.

"Back then, temperatures were below zero at night," he says.

Waltraud Resch would not have survived that for two nights.

"Even then we had lost hope of finding her alive," says Sendl.

But Waltraud Resch was not declared dead until five years after her disappearance.

The last photo by Waltraud Resch.

© private

Every time Hubert Sendl or Edith Church read a missing persons report, they suffer with the affected families.

And then the nagging questions about what happened to her sister come back.

Missing persons reports are published daily in Bavaria - most people are found again.

But there aren't many ways to make finding someone with dementia any easier.

From a legal point of view, protecting those affected with sensors or GPS technology is an encroachment on fundamental rights.

This decision must always be carefully considered by the legal guardian or the authorized representative, explains the judge Corinna Vogler from the Munich District Court.

"If a measure has the character of deprivation of liberty, the approval of the guardianship court is required," she says.

Each individual case must be carefully examined from a legal point of view

Siblings demand: Dementia patients must be better protected

Edith Church can understand that only to a limited extent.

She would like the laws to be amended so that it would be possible to better protect people with dementia.

"If a child just disappeared from a daycare center, all hell would break loose," she says.

"People with dementia find it just as difficult as children to correctly assess dangers."

After her sister's disappearance, she wrote to Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), member of the Bundestag, that Weilheim is his constituency.

At the time, his office promised her that he would find out about the legal situation and then get in touch.

"I never heard from him again," says Church, disappointed.

"The topic is not a priority for politics."

She and her brother would like families with a doctor's certificate to be able to choose bracelets with GPS trackers without a court order.

And they hope that social awareness will change.

If more people had taken a closer look on March 6th or spoken to Waltraud Resch, she might still be alive today, her brother believes.

“There are so many people with dementia in our society.

And there will be more,” he emphasizes.

A change in the law comes too late for his sister – it could help many other people affected.

You can find more current news from the Weilheim-Schongau district at Merkur.de/Weilheim.