As of: February 10, 2024, 5:06 a.m
By: Maximilian Kettenbach
Comments
Press
Split
Rebecca Reusch remains missing after her disappearance in February 2019.
We revisited the case with many twists and turns.
Berlin – Rebecca Reusch from Berlin has been missing for five years now.
The then 15-year-old has been missing for five long years.
The family doesn't give up hope that she will show up again.
But 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.”
Rebecca's brother-in-law is still considered suspect number 1
The search for the missing Berliner Rebecca Reusch was carried out using helicopters, cadaver dogs and much more.
© private/Imago (montage)
The investigators caused a stir just a year ago.
At that time, they hoped to find new clues by searching the house of Rebecca's brother-in-law, husband of her older sister Jessica.
They noticed a missing bathrobe belt.
The man is still considered suspect number 1 and has already been arrested twice.
However, he was released both times due to a lack of evidence.
The presumption of innocence still applies.
Time for a chronicle:
IPPEN.MEDIA series part 1
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.
We will be publishing a mini-series on the next five Fridays with the latest findings, theories from experts and assessments from investigators.
Part 2 of the series: Looking at the theories: 5 possible scenarios for Rebecca's disappearance
Part 3 of the series - Looking at the brother-in-law: Why the investigators could even be threatened with embarrassment
Berlin missing person case Rebecca Reusch - a chronology of the day of her disappearance
On February 17, 2019, Rebecca stayed overnight at the house of her big sister Jessica (then 27) and her husband (then 27) in Berlin-Neukölln.
February 18, 2019:
My news
“Facial expressions and gestures are not congruent with the content of the statements”: The Reusch family surprises crime experts
All that's left of an important company in Baden-Württemberg is an abandoned factory
Klaus Hallhuber is dead: Munich entrepreneur dies shortly after fashion chainlesen goes bankrupt
“Warm Canary Islands Nozzle” at the weekend: weather expert predicts up to 20 degrees in Germany
23 million euros are to be paid out to drivers in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2024
Animal rights activists rescue puppies with broken faces and look for new homes for them
According to his own statement, Rebecca's brother-in-law returns home from a party at 5:45 a.m.
Sister Jessica leaves the house at 7 a.m. to take the children to daycare.
According to her husband, he goes to bed to sleep after a company party.
At around 7:15 a.m., Jessica asks her husband to wake up her sister Rebecca for school.
When the brother-in-law enters the living room, Rebecca is not there, according to him.
7:46 a.m.: According to an analysis, Rebecca's phone was logged in for the last time at this time.
Mother Brigitte Reusch sent her daughter a WhatsApp message at 8:40 a.m., which she said she had received.
She concludes: “She must have passed a router somewhere that sent her this message.
This could have been at the school, at the Gropius Passagen or even at her place at the Dreieinigkeitskirche community.
Or where she was still logged in.” Rebecca receives the message, but no longer reads it.
At 9:50 a.m. Rebecca doesn't show up for class at school.
Jessica and her husband's pink Renault Twingo is registered by the Brandenburg license plate recognition system KESY on the A12 between Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder) in the direction of Poland.
It's 10:47 a.m.
Rebecca's family reported the 15-year-old missing to the police in the afternoon and started a search for "Becci".
Race against time - Rebecca's brother-in-law comes under suspicion
February 19, 2019:
The police publish a missing person report.
At the same time, the sister and brother-in-law's Twingo was registered again by a camera on the A12 between Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder) at 10:39 p.m.
Only the brother-in-law was probably in the car that day.
According to the police, his statements do not match the movement data of his car.
February 21, 2019:
Now a race against time begins.
But it wasn't until three days after the girl's disappearance that the police published an official missing person report for Rebecca Reusch.
February 23, 2019:
Now the 3rd Homicide Commission of the Berlin State Criminal Police Office is taking over the missing person case.
In the days that followed, she didn't just investigate.
Parks, used clothing containers and much more are also searched using a helicopter.
Family and friends are looking for you.
February 28, 2019:
On February 28th, Rebecca's brother-in-law (then 27) was temporarily arrested by the police and
released on Friday,
March 1st by order of an investigating judge.
March 2, 2019:
Investigators are now assuming it was a homicide.
March 3, 2019:
The public prosecutor's office lodges an appeal against the release.
That evening, Rebecca's brother-in-law's handcuffs click again.
ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY” – Thousands of clues follow, but Rebecca remains missing
March 6, 2019:
Michael Hoffmann from the Berlin State Criminal Police Office appears on the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY” and, figuratively speaking, has brought “explosives” with him.
Photos of the brother-in-law and his raspberry-red Twingo are published.
Subsequently, divers, cadaver dogs and echo sounders search in forest areas and lakes in Brandenburg - specifically in the area along the motorway between Berlin and the Polish border.
Once a sniffer dog arrives, but further searches turn up nothing.
March 13, 2019:
The family goes public with Rebecca's online flirtation, with a "Max" or "Maxi".
However, his Instagram profile has now been deleted.
According to the police, the trail leads nowhere.
March 22, 2019:
Rebecca's brother-in-law has to be released from custody again.
There are doubts about the strong suspicion of manslaughter, but he remains suspect number 1.
April 13, 2019:
The search for Rebecca has been stopped for the time being.
Brother-in-law's house search - is the case gaining new momentum?
December 2020:
In a podcast by journalists Miriam Arndts and Lena Niethammer, the brother-in-law is targeted again.
They report that research has shown that a witness saw a “conspicuous man” wearing a baseball cap in a forest area near Kummersdorf on the day Rebecca disappeared.
Another witness claims to have spotted the pink car nearby.
But that was known for a long time.
Ralph Knispel is senior public prosecutor and head of the capital crimes department in Berlin.
His namesake Martin Knispel is leading the investigation.
“The search obviously turned out to be very difficult – this is especially true in forest areas.
It's so easy to imagine, but landscapes change and there are surface changes caused by animals, for example," says Knispel, who is also chairman of the Association of Berlin Prosecutors.
April 13, 2023:
The investigators suddenly search the house of the brother-in-law, who is still considered suspicious.
On the one hand, it was about possible evidence.
According to media reports, new data from the brother-in-law's Google search history showed that he had searched the Internet for strangulation practices during sexual intercourse shortly before Rebecca's disappearance.
The investigators also noticed that a belt was missing from a bathrobe.
On the other hand, the police carried out acoustic measurements.
This was probably intended to determine where and how loud Rebecca's screams could possibly have been heard.
Rebecca's mother comments on the case and talks about her hope.
Missing Persons Expert: These are the four key moments in the Rebecca case
The twists and turns and the wealth of information in this case is enormous.
In order to maintain an overview, Peter Jamin, a missing person expert, broke down the case into four key moments in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA in spring 2023.
The 15-year-old's disappearance without a trace on February 18, 2019. "The reason behind this is not only that the police have few leads and are really in the dark, but also that this is a huge intervention for the family, for the relatives."
Key moment 2: The wrong photo.
“I can understand why it was chosen back then,” says Jamin.
But he doesn't understand why the police are still looking for the artificially edited picture of Rebecca. "How do you want to look for a missing person if you have the wrong photo?" He sees this as a "blatant mistake by the police."
The brother-in-law is the focus of the investigation.
He intervenes in the family structure and creates a very difficult situation. “If the family believes the police, they have a very negative view of the brother-in-law.
But if you believe your brother-in-law, you will be in confrontation with the police - which is actually the case.”
Jamin sees the family's commitment as the fourth key moment: “They go to the media themselves, talk about their hope, talk about their lives.” This way the case remains present.
The 3rd Homicide Squad of the State Criminal Police Office will receive information by calling (030) 4664-911333 or by email at lka113-tipp@polizei.berlin.de.