Who is the mother of the dead baby who was found more than 20 years ago on a dirt road near Büdingen?
This weekend, the investigators are making a new attempt to solve the "Sabrina" case with a DNA series test.
A good 22 years after the baby's body was found in a garbage bag near the central Hessian city, they hope for new clues in this "cold case".
Several hundred women were asked to do a series test in the Wolfgang-Konrad-Halle in the Büdingen district of Lorbach, who were supposed to volunteer a saliva sample there.
The police and the public prosecutor hope to find the mother of the newborn girl whom they have named "Sabrina".
600 women received mail from the police
The fate of the child is still unclear today.
The officials assume a homicide, but do not want to give any further information on the reasons, as it is a question of potential perpetrator knowledge, as a police spokesman said on Friday.
In the past few weeks, around 600 women who were between 13 and 30 years old at the time the body was found and who lived in the vicinity of Büdingen at the time, had been written to and asked to take the voluntary test.
Around 200 of them have now moved to other areas in Germany, said the spokesman.
They could participate in the screening through their local police authorities.
The remaining 400 or so still lived in the region.
Women who want to take part in the examination in the Wolfgang-Konrad-Halle will first be welcomed at the weekend.
After they have identified themselves, they should give a saliva sample.
This is done using a sterile cotton swab.
"The entire process only takes a few seconds and is completely painless and harmless for you," said a police brochure.
Negative samples are destroyed immediately
According to the police, the DNA samples taken are anonymized and handed over to the experts commissioned with the investigation, and the DNA identification patterns are then compared with those of the dead child. "In the event of a negative result, the saliva sample is immediately destroyed and the DNA identification pattern created is deleted," emphasized the police in the brochure: "Your DNA pattern will not be saved in a file or compared with other criminal proceedings, nor will it be legal possible."
How many of the women actually come is difficult to estimate in advance, said the spokesman. Anyone who does not appear does not make themselves suspicious either, he added with a view to voluntary participation. On Monday, November 8th, the police want to inform how many of those who were addressed actually came to the test. However, results can only be expected in the course of the first quarter of next year.
Should the woman actually be found, that does not mean "automatically that Sabrina's mother must have been the one who put the girl there, or rather: who might have killed the girl in some way," the spokesman said.
However, it is assumed that the mother “is one of the last people who must have seen the girl alive and who can definitely help us with the education”.
Corpse in plastic bags
On April 1, 1999, a walker found the baby body wrapped in plastic bags on a dirt road between Büdingen-Vonhausen and Büdingen-Lorbach.
Since the sack has been in the area for several months, according to investigations, the delivery could have taken place at the end of 1998, according to the police brochure.
Despite extensive investigations, it has not yet been possible to unequivocally clarify the exact circumstances of the death or the deposition of the corpse, as well as the identity of the child.
The dead baby was buried without a name at the time.
In order to give expression to the girl's personality and identity, the investigators had given her the name Sabrina.