Acquittal in Hamburg Cold Case: Unglowed

Little time? At the end of the text there is a summary.

Hamburg Steilshoop, November 1, 1980. A girl is on her way home when a teenager attacks the 16-year-old with a knife. She is mortally wounded by twelve stitches, the offender tears her into a shrubbery and tries to rape her. Only when a group of teenagers approaches does he abandon her.

For the victim, the nightmare is not over. The attempted murder remains unclear. It all looked in February this year after a huge success for the Hamburg investigators. A special task force arrested a man, charges were brought, the trial began. On Wednesday, the district court of Hamburg released the 54-year-old defendant.

"If we had known at the beginning what we know today, we would not have opened the proceedings at all," said Judge Anne Meier-Goering at the verdict: "The plaintiff and the defendant would have been spared many things." The judge sharply criticized the Hamburg cold-cases unit. She spoke of "faulty police work". It speaks more for the fact that the defendant did not commit the act.

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The Steilshooper case shows how difficult it is to convict guilty parties after such a long time. Documents are missing after decades, evidence is lost, traces are blurred. Investigators talk about long-unannounced homicides and missing person cases of cold cases (read more about such cases here). The prosecution has stopped the investigation at some point, because all tracks are cold. If the victims or survivors are lucky, find investigators who will resume the search for the perpetrator one day.

Whether they succeed depends often on what happened in the first hours after an offense. They are the foundation upon which the work of cold-case investigators stands. "Especially the first time is crucial to secure traces that are fleeting," says Kriminaloberrat Karsten Bettels. "These include footprints that may be exposed to weather conditions when a crime scene is outdoors, but also include electronic data that could be erased, or hearing witnesses whose memories naturally fade over time."

Bettels was the director of Soko "Levke". The eight-year-old girl had been murdered in 2004 in Cuxhaven, in the pre-trial detention confessed her murderer also the murder of the same age Felix. Bettel has been a lecturer at the Police Academy Lower Saxony for five years. He leads the elective course "Cold Cases" for prospective commissioners. The students learn how to find new investigative approaches even in long-term cases.

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"The first step is to backup and archive the files," Bettels says: "Which files are available where they are? Are they complete? Are there any evidence that can be forensically evaluated? Are there any witnesses who are still alive? " Years, sometimes decades after the fact, to resume investigations means elaborate detail work, requires great care - and meticulous file study.

Which witnesses testified what? Which questions were not asked? What did the former colleagues overlook? What evidence is still available and can be investigated using methods that might not have existed at the time of the crime?

Criminologists did not even dare to dream of today's possibilities of DNA analysis. Again and again there are successes. Only a few months ago a suspect was arrested in the Netherlands thanks to a DNA reconciliation, who allegedly murdered an 11-year-old in 1998. And even in the case of the killings of Attorney General Siegfried Buback and two companions in 1977, there was still a process decades later. In 2012, former RAF terrorist Verena Becker was convicted of aiding and abetting murder in three cases.

Also in this case, there were DNA traces that pointed to Becker. An orthodontist found them on envelopes in which the RAF had sent letters of support more than three decades previously. The envelopes had been examined several times over the years, only new methods of analysis brought the evidence to light.

Video: Cold Cases - the second look

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Even with testimonies, a long time gap to the offense may be an advantage. Although witnesses can forget, they can also fall in love again. Thus, the alibi of a suspect may dissolve years later, because a now-former life partner suddenly admits to having testified wrongly out of love. "Lifestyles change," says Bettels. Sometimes that helps.

Also public attention can help. Maybe report to media reports confidants who want to ease their consciences. Maybe witnesses who only now realize what they have once observed. "It's also about showing the perpetrators: You still have no peace!" Says Bettels.

Also in the Hamburg case, testimonies came to play a crucial role, but not a good one. The murder weapon, a knife, could not be found. It got lost in the police. The indictment was based on circumstantial evidence.

This ripped the judge in the verdict in clear words. Accordingly, there are many indications that the victim, the defendant and also the most important witness were questioned by the investigators "highly suggestively" and "possibly even deceived".

Witness changed statement by 180 degrees

Photos were submitted to the victim. The woman should say if she recognized the offender. Inadmissible, she had previously been told that in a photo actually the perpetrator is to be seen, the only need to be convicted. The photo that showed the defendant in his youth was the only picture a young man wore clothes from the eighties.

Finally, a school friend of the defendant was questioned, who changed his statement in the police by 180 degrees within a week. Only on the evidence that there may be a reward and the perpetrators had had blonde hair, the witness claimed that the defendant had at the time of blond hair dyed and had a knife. His knife had exhibited those damages that were also present at the knife. However, the witness had previously seen a photo of the Tatmessers. The damages were marked with arrows.

Of course everything must be done to solve serious crimes even decades later, said defender Jan Jacob after the acquittal for his client. Cold-case units make sense. "But something like this should not happen, it must not be done to victims or accused." In this procedure there are "only losers", also said the judge. This explicitly meant the cold-cases unit.

"Living with the certainty that this crime will never be resolved"

Claudia Krüger, the victim's lawyer, has announced that she will work with the police to investigate the failure of the investigators "to make sure that does not happen again." Despite everything, she also has no doubts about the fundamental importance of the work of cold-case units.

"I know it's very important for victims to know, 'Who did this to me, why did it happen to me?' They want to be clear, "Krüger said. "That's why it's good that there are cold-cases units, their work is very, very valuable." Her client, however, has lost confidence in the police. "She thought the perpetrator was caught, and now she has to live with the certainty that this crime will never be resolved."

One may believe the Hamburg cold-case investigators that they finally wanted to clear up the crime. Maybe that was exactly the problem.

"The question is, what are we ultimately talking about, is it about condemning anyone to be able to close the file after years, maybe decades, or is it about finding the truth?" Says the Berlin defense lawyer Stefan Conen. He is chairman of the Vereinigung Berliner Strafverteidiger and member of the Criminal Law Committee of the German Bar Association. "An acquittal in an old case also means that the whole work of the investigators for the cat has been and the crime is probably never enlightened."

Conen goes one step further. "When it comes to finding out the truth, it would be desirable for the same energy invested in the clarification of so-called" legacies "to be devoted to the cases in which dubious condemnations have been made."

Because even that is there: An act is considered clarified, an innocent is in prison. The Hamburg defendant was spared this fate. He is compensated for his four and a half months in custody. And the man who was working at that time, if he still lives, probably still runs free.

In summary: The district court of Hamburg has acquitted a man accused of attempting to kill a 16-year-old in 1980. The case highlights the difficulties experienced by investigators decades ago. In the specific case, the court violently criticized the work of the investigators. For the victim, the outcome of the process is particularly bitter - according to her lawyer, the woman has lost confidence in the police.