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In sober words, a nearly 20-year historical investigation officially ended this Thursday. “There will be no further charges, the Peggy case has been closed,” Bayreuth prosecutor spokesman Martin Dippold told a chamber. A press conference with journalists present was not held due to the crown. Instead, Dippold reads a detailed message alternately with his colleague Anne Höfer. It almost seems a bit surreal, a case comes to an end with a blurred camera image, whose circumstances have also been blurred. And yet, in the case of Peggy, the Upper Franconian girl who disappeared at the age of nine, no further investigation is being conducted. There is insufficient evidence or evidence to support a murder charge against Manuel S., who was the center of attention recently, and who has since made a partial confession and reversed it.
This ends a process that comprised around 450 files in almost two decades, in which investigators had investigated around 6,400 traces, a process with around 3,600 interrogations, one that had caused a national stir and revealed investigation scandals. And it ends up being deeply unsatisfying for family members. Why did Peggy die and how, who was to blame for her death, tormenting questions remain unanswered.
The girl disappeared one day in early May 2001. In a book Ina Jung and Christoph Lemmer published about the case, you can read how Peggy went to buy a cheese bar the morning before school. How she left school at noon and was last seen near her parents’ house in the market square. The case soon attracted national attention.
After Peggy’s disappearance, a large-scale search operation followed with hundreds of police officers and even Bundeswehr tornadoes. And investigations followed, which the prosecutor described as “exceptional” this Thursday, in which even peat particles were examined “outside the usual investigation routine”.
The girl remained undetectable for many years after the day of May 2001. Only after 15 years, a mushroom picker came across the girl’s remains in a forest about 10 miles from Lichtenberg. Immediately after her disappearance, Peggy’s mother became suspicious of Ulvi K. de Lichtenberg, then 24 years old. He admitted that he sexually abused Peggy four days before she disappeared. In the course of the investigation, he confessed to killing her. The motive for the murder seemed obvious: he supposedly wanted to prevent the abuse from coming to light. K., who has an intellectual disability, was sentenced to life in prison in a circumstantial trial for murder in the Peggy case and for sexual abuse of children in a psychiatric hospital. The turning point some ten years later: He was acquitted in a new trial. He had withdrawn his confession.
Another man, Manuel S., came into focus in 2018. The man against whom the investigation has now been stopped. S. was mentioned from the beginning by Ulvi K. as an accomplice, since then S. has been one of the “relevant group of people”. Then, in 2018, S., then 41, was questioned. He also made a confession, at least in part, and was arrested. He testified that he had received Peggy’s body from a man at a bus stop and tried unsuccessfully to revive it, then wrapped it in a red blanket, placed it in the trunk of his car, and buried it in the woods near Lichtenberg. He later also revoked his confession. His lawyer Jörg Meringer still accuses the investigators of questionable methods. “My client was interrogated for ten hours,” without legal help, Meringer said Thursday by phone. The false confession was made under considerable psychological strain and was untenable even then. Furthermore, the investigators had announced it publicly and expected more witnesses to report. Describe the evidence from mob investigations that linked S. to Peggy’s “hair pulling” death. S. was released in late 2018.
Just a few weeks ago, the Bayreuth prosecutor had announced a new state of affairs. Hopes that this could uncover new investigative successes are now a thing of the past. What happened to Peggy remains in the dark, a sex crime and murder are assumed. Prevention of punishment or lack of assistance resulting in death is prohibited by law. The murder does not expire, but it is considered unlikely that further investigations into this “unsolved case.”
The investigations had caused a stir repeatedly in recent years. In 2014, officials opened a grave in Lichtenberg Cemetery, suspecting that Peggy’s body had been deposited there at a funeral in 2001. In 2016, Peggy’s case was mistakenly linked to the NSU terrorist Uwe Böhnhardt. Böhnhardt’s DNA had been found at the site of Peggy’s bones. It appears that the investigators who were also actively involved in the NSU case had inadvertently succeeded. In 2019, the then “Soko Peggy” investigators were investigated because they had used a covertly recorded conversation. Investigations have also been halted.
“Very, very happy,” said his client S. that the sword of Damocles from the investigation no longer hangs over him, said his attorney Meringer. Peggy’s mother had always hoped for the success of the investigation in recent years. His attorney declined to comment Thursday.
