As of: February 8, 2024, 5:22 a.m
By: Jennifer Lanzinger
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Rebecca Reusch from Berlin is still missing, and her family and investigators have been looking for the student for five years now.
All theories in the missing person case at a glance.
Berlin - The Berlin police website is still looking for Rebecca Reusch, and investigators are still trying to solve the case surrounding the missing student.
Right from the start, numerous theories developed in the mysterious missing person case.
While investigators believe in the girl's death and still suspect the then 15-year-old's brother-in-law, theories have also developed over time that could lead one to believe that the girl survived.
And give the family hope.
February 18, 2024 marks the fifth anniversary of the disappearance.
What really happened to Rebecca Reusch?
The theories at a glance
Since the student's disappearance, investigators say they have followed up on thousands of leads.
Citizens still regularly report to the Berlin police, some of whom have started looking for the missing girl on their own.
This is what it says in the updated search call for Rebecca from February 2023. The investigators are puzzling, but in the end there are five theories in particular.
The overview:
IPPEN.MEDIA series part 2
The then 15-year-old Rebecca Reusch from Berlin has been missing since February 18, 2019.
On the fifth anniversary of her disappearance, we would like to look at the case again from different perspectives.
On the five Fridays before the anniversary, we will publish a mini-series with the latest findings, theories from experts and assessments from investigators.
Part 1 of the series: Chronicle, status of the investigation and key moments
Part 3 of the series - Looking at the brother-in-law: Why the investigators could even be threatened with embarrassment
Theory 1: Investigators believe Rebecca did not leave her sister's house alive
Shortly after the student's disappearance, the police temporarily arrested the girl's brother-in-law.
Florian R. was arrested a total of twice within a few days, but was released again due to a lack of strong suspicion.
To this day, the brother-in-law of the missing Rebecca Reusch is considered a suspect in the case.
And: Investigators are certain that the student never left her sister's house in Berlin Britz alive.
It is clear to the public prosecutor's office: the investigation is not about a missing person, but about a corpse.
The spokesman for the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office, Sebastian Büchner, tells
Merkur.de from IPPEN.MEDIA
: “The file is not closed, new leads are being investigated.
But there are currently no new leads from the investigation.”
Martin Steltner from the Berlin public prosecutor's office commented on this approach in a TV documentary on
RTL Plus
in 2021 : “So these are not amateurs who work in such cases,” said Steltner.
“They have determined that there is no other explanation.
There is no evidence to suggest any other explanation.”
Theoretically there could be another explanation, but we have to stick to the facts.
If Rebecca left the house voluntarily, there would be traces that would indicate this.
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Axel Petermann, certified case analyst and criminologist, told
IPPEN.MEDIA
: “There doesn't seem to be any evidence of a bloody crime in the house itself.
But that doesn't have to be the case, because there are always crimes that are carried out with hands and are bloodless."
Despite police investigations, the family continues to stand united behind the girl's brother-in-law.
The parents of the missing Rebecca spoke in a TV documentary by RTL Plus in winter 2021. At the time, the family did not believe that the young man was guilty.
“For Becci it was her big brother,” says Brigitte Reusch, describing the relationship between the family and Florian R. “He is fully integrated,” says Bernd Reusch.
The presumption of innocence applies to the brother-in-law.
Theory 2: Was Rebecca kidnapped or perhaps secretly had a boyfriend?
Shortly after Rebecca's disappearance, the family became the public focus of the search.
Almost all family members spoke in the media, only the suspected brother-in-law Florian R. remained in the background.
At the start of the search, the student's parents expressed suspicion that Rebecca might be being held against her will.
A possible chat acquaintance was also brought into play after the student's disappearance.
According to this, friends of Rebecca, among others, said in a conversation with two journalists that the student had written online with a “Max”.
In her podcast “In the Dark.
Lena Niethammer and Miriam Arndts also researched the Rebecca Reusch case in the student's environment.
A friend of the missing woman said that the unknown chat friend had come to Berlin specifically to meet Rebecca, but that the student had canceled the meeting at short notice.
As the friend further reported in the podcast, she was shown a photo of the chat acquaintance.
It is said to have been a photo of the teenager.
So did Rebecca Reusch possibly meet an unknown boy from the chat?
This trail has also been in the sand so far.
Theory 3: Several witnesses claim to have seen Rebecca on the street that morning
While the investigators assume that Rebecca Reusch probably did not leave her older sister's house alive, several witnesses claim to have seen the student on the day she disappeared.
A neighbor claims to have seen the girl on the street of her older sister's house on the day she disappeared.
The student from Berlin is said to have carried the purple blanket under her arm.
Shortly after the student's disappearance, the Berlin police announced her as missing in a public announcement.
The neighbor in question spoke out in the two journalists' podcast.
Although the woman reported the encounter to the police, they simply waved it off.
"Yes / Yes.
That couldn't possibly be the case.
The investigation would have revealed something completely different,” the police officer is said to have replied to the neighbor.
As the journalists further explained in the podcast in winter 2021, the police are said to have reacted similarly to a recent request for the podcast.
Accordingly, the neighbor was treated “like all other whistleblowers, appropriately and respectfully”.
“Their perception then and now does not match the objective status of the investigation.
“So Ms. [ ] must be wrong,” the podcast creators read out the police statement.
Another witness claims to have seen the then 15-year-old at a bus stop on the day she disappeared.
“I recognized her face.
Once I see people, I don't confuse them," the witness explained at the time in an interview with
RTL
.
She also reported this to the investigators at the time.
The witness is very confident about their encounter, after all, she has known Rebecca for years.
She was cheerleading with the sister of the missing woman at the time.
As public prosecutor Martin Knispel (formerly: Glage) explained to
Bild
in autumn 2021, over time all statements from alleged eyewitnesses were put into perspective: “This was checked extensively and several times, but she could not be seen on the video cameras in the buses.” and: “We also followed up on other leads that Rebecca supposedly saw elsewhere in the city.
We can also rule that out today.”
Theory 4: Was Rebecca buried in a forest in Brandenburg?
The police received hundreds of tips in the days after the girl's disappearance, some of them claiming to have seen her brother-in-law's car in the forest in Kummersdorf in Brandenburg.
About 30 minutes by car from Berlin.
As the journalists of the podcast “In the Dark.
“The case of Rebecca Reusch”, a woman in the area claims to have made a very special observation.
During the conversation, the woman explained that she did not want to accuse anyone.
However, she reported to the police that she had seen a man in that very forest at that time.
He wore a baseball cap and kept looking around.
When the stranger saw the woman with her friends and their horses, he quickened his pace.
He almost ran into the forest between branches and bushes.
A few weeks later, when the police were looking for clues about the missing Rebecca Reusch in exactly this area of the forest, the women remembered the man's strange behavior.
Since the riders took photos of their horses that day, in this very forest, the women can also prove the date of the strange encounter.
This took place on February 18, 2019.
The witness reported to the two journalists that the investigators had contacted her several times.
They also took their sighting seriously.
And it was also mentioned that a friend of the brother-in-law had a bungalow in exactly this settlement.
But this trail didn't lead to the missing Rebecca Reusch either.
It is not officially known whether the sighting at that time was at all related to the missing Rebecca Reusch case.
Theory 5: Was Rebecca abducted or did she voluntarily leave the country with a man?
Could Rebecca Reusch possibly still be alive and even have left the country voluntarily?
This theory still cannot be completely ruled out.
The missing girl is said to have been seen abroad several times.
An eyewitness reported seeing the missing woman in a department store in Poland.
According to the eyewitness, the young woman was accompanied by a man.
The eyewitness spoke in the media at the time, describing, among other things, the missing Rebecca Reusch's braces.
Striking: As the mother of the missing Rebecca said in a TV documentary by
RTL Plus
, it was not yet known to the public at that time that Rebecca had actually been wearing braces on the day she disappeared.
And: Brigitte Reusch also spoke in the TV documentary about the fact that her daughter was said to have been seen by witnesses several times.
A passerby saw Rebecca in a parking lot accompanied by a man.
Another woman recognized Rebecca in Tenerife.
“I don't know if it was Rebecca, but we hope.
“Hope dies last,” explained Brigitte Reusch at the time.
It is completely unclear whether the sightings could actually have been Rebecca.
There is still no trace of the student from Berlin.
Even after five years.