As of: February 13, 2024, 11:39 a.m
By: Maximilian Kettenbach
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The Rebecca Reusch missing person case is celebrating its fifth anniversary.
The family continues to protect the brother-in-law, who is a suspect for the investigators.
Experts are amazed.
Berlin – When the Berlin police published the photo of the missing Rebecca Reusch three days after the disappearance, they wrote: “She was last staying with family members in the Britz/Alt-Buckow area and did not come to her school in Fritz that day -Erler-Allee.”
That was on February 21, 2019. But Rebecca remained missing.
At the time, it was not expected that this fact had not changed even five years later and that the case was so complicated.
Not even because the photo was probably unhelpful.
Rather the opposite.
Individual observers of the missing person case criticize the police for this.
However, two crime experts see it differently.
They blame the family.
Missing Berliner Rebecca Reusch – Police searched for her with “Lolita photo”.
Axel Petermann, for example.
The murder investigator for years became a profiler at the turn of the millennium.
As such, he then advised the investigators.
He doesn't understand why the family gave this photo to the investigating authorities.
In an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA,
he asked himself that with this photo “you are looking for a girl that doesn’t even exist with that kind of looks”:
“How did that come about?
In the photo, Rebecca corresponds to the so-called Lolita type, who attracts attention with her appearance.
Why should the investigators take a different picture if they receive this one for investigation purposes?
They can’t know that Rebecca actually doesn’t really look like that.”
But when he looks at other pictures of Rebecca in comparison, he thinks: “Oops, a stranger is looking at me.
It’s a shame.”
Axel Petermann was a murder investigator before he became a profiler at the turn of the millennium.
The case analyst, confirmed by the police, has been advising the investigators since then.
Until 2014. Then he retired.
However, criminal cases continue to bother him.
His books based on true cases put him on the Spiegel bestseller list.
© Ralf Gemmecke
Maybe things had to happen quickly back then.
And: The family quickly provided more pictures in search of “Becci”.
While the public prosecutor's office does not want to comment on this, criminal scientist Christian Matzdorf makes it clear.
“The police could only work with what the family provided them.
And only with the information.
The role of the family is central and in this case, from different perspectives, has not always been optimal.”
That makes you sit up and take notice.
Matzdorf is a professor of criminology with a focus on forensic science at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin).
He was previously with the Berlin State Police before he was interested in combining the practical impressions from 30 years of violent crime with science.
What he means is this:
Brother-in-law Florian R. remains suspect number 1 - for several reasons
The focus of the investigation has been the girl's brother-in-law, Florian R, almost from hour zero. The public prosecutor's office assumes that Rebecca did not leave the house alive.
Rebecca had stayed with Florian and sister Jessica the night before she disappeared.
In the morning she was alone with him.
The case is highly unusual.
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Accusations against the Reusch family are becoming louder: Are the investigators looking for Rebecca with the wrong picture from the start?
© Credit: dpa/Imago (montage)
Petermann sums it up: “A 15-year-old disappears without a trace.
She's actually in a safe room with her sister.
She is supposed to go to school, but then she is alone with her brother-in-law because her sister leaves the apartment.
Rebecca is now alone with her brother-in-law.
He later says that he was sleeping, but in the meantime seems to have googled strangulation practices during sexual intercourse," he says.
What's more: Florian R. and his wife Jessica's car was scanned by cameras on the way to Poland.
There doesn't seem to be an explanation for this.
As you can hear, it was about drug deals.
Florian was arrested twice and released from custody both times due to a lack of evidence.
The allegations against him continue to be serious, as you can see from parts 1-3 of our series on Rebecca's disappearance.
IPPEN.MEDIA series part 4
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: Overview: Chronicle, status of the investigation and key moments
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
Part 5 of the series: A look at the investigators: The authorities' mistakes and the hope for the missing piece of the puzzle
Another search of the brother-in-law's house - but the Reusch family sticks together
Florian R. is presumed innocent.
And the family acts accordingly.
She leaves no doubt that she doesn't think Florian is the perpetrator.
When investigators searched the brother-in-law and sister's house again in April 2023, mother Brigitte was the last to speak out publicly: "We are not giving up hope," she explained to
Bild
.
You can feel whether your own child is still alive.
There is “no change” within the family, an RTL reporter learned from Rebecca’s mother.
Brigitte Reusch emphasized that people celebrate celebrations together, as long as they can still be celebrated after Rebecca's disappearance.
Investigators are still using these items to search for Rebecca's case.
But they are actually looking for a corpse.
That's how clear the public prosecutor's office is on this matter.
And that in turn turns the family against the officials.
They don't understand why no other investigation is being carried out.
Instead, they hope that Rebecca will show up again.
This is humanly understandable.
The fact that the family sticks together like this seems admirable, but it doesn't make things any easier for the investigators.
The Berlin public prosecutor Ralph Knispel, whose namesake Martin continues to lead the investigation, knows this: “Personal and family relationships with the family are often not that easy.
In individual cases, this can lead to relatives of the accused not wanting to believe that they are guilty.”
Ralph Knispel is senior public prosecutor and head of the capital crimes department in Berlin.
He is also chairman of the Association of Berlin Prosecutors.
© IMAGO/Olaf Wagner
Criminal scientist Matzdorf criticizes the Reusch family
Matzdorf has little regard for the family's behavior.
In addition to the harsh criticism of the authorities, he accuses the family of “offensive self-marketing.”
After the disappearance, father Bernd, mother Brigitte and Rebecca's sisters went public.
They gave interviews and coordinated searches.
The eldest, Vivien, set up an Instagram account to search for Rebecca.
But despite numerous clues, Rebecca remains missing.
Profiler Petermann believes the case will be solved
Matzdorf thinks: “The family continues to appear very united to the outside world.
In terms of external perception, this led to disturbance, including among those investigating.” Particularly when it comes to media presence, there are “scenes on TV where an unbiased observer could notice moments in which facial expressions and gestures did not appear to be congruent with the content of the statements,” said Matzdorf .
Christian Matzdorf is a professor of criminology with a focus on forensic science at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin).
There he heads the forensic science center and the university's crisis team.
He is also a board member and press spokesman for the German Society for Criminalistics (DGfK).
He was in the Berlin State Police for over 30 years.
© private
Is the family's expressed hope of seeing Rebecca again justified?
Petermann believes more in the prosecutor's theory.
But with all the experience from decades of investigative work, he says: “The case can still be solved.
In the end, people are always involved.
And we don’t know whether they won’t correct their statements in a few years.”
The Reusch family was not available for comment.
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.