In September 2004, a man disappeared in Constance in Baden-Württemberg.
18 years later, his wife finds out what happened to her husband.
Constance - It is September 21, 2004: A 56-year-old man checks into a hotel in Constance, Baden-Württemberg.
He told his wife he was going on a business trip.
A day later he disappeared without a trace.
Hotel employees find his clothes, personal belongings, business documents in his room.
Only: The man no longer appears.
Did he want to cheat the bill?
Was he even murdered?
As the
Südkurier
writes, the missing persons case turns into a cold case - for 18 years his wife does not find out what became of her husband.
After the report from the hotel, the German police started investigations on September 22nd.
At the same time, the authorities in Spain are also taking action: the missing person's wife had filed a missing persons report there.
Baden-Württemberg: The man missing in Constance had emigrated to Spain with his wife
The couple came from North Rhine-Westphalia, but had emigrated to Spain a few years before 2004.
Starting from scratch in the sunny south - the two earned their money in Spain by selling cars.
This also included selling cars, for example to Germany.
That's what police commissioner Andreas Reichert told the
Südkurier
.
When the man gets on the train, he wants to sell a car in Munich.
He disappeared a little later, and his wife lived another 18 years without ever hearing from him again.
Was he killed?
Why do you find your personal belongings but not him?
The fact that the woman does not find out anything about the missing person is also due to the authorities in Spain.
Because as early as 2008 there was certainty about the fate of the emigrant dealing in cars.
400 cold cases in Baden-Württemberg - how German authorities found out that the man is still alive
In Baden-Württemberg alone there are around 400 so-called cold cases, i.e. long-term missing persons, suspected homicides or corpses that could never be identified.
Inspector Reichert and his own investigative team are supposed to change that in the last two years.
They are also looking for the missing person again: “We re-evaluated tracks and evidence to get insights into his travel route and where he was going.
His DNA was also re-examined and compared in databases," Reichert told the
Südkurier
.
And Reichert's investigative team finds the man: the emigrant has been living in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland since 2004 - with a new partner, who is now 75 years old.
As early as 2008, Swiss authorities reported to Spain that the man had been found during a traffic check.
The woman apparently never got this information - just as little as the German authorities, where the man was still missing and was counted among the cold cases.
In the end, he didn't tell the investigators from Baden-Württemberg why he just went underground, Reichert said.
"However, he has consented to his wife being informed that he is alive." (kat)
