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February 2024 will mark the 5th anniversary of the disappearance of the missing Rebecca Reusch from Berlin. Investigators still believe the student died. All theories at a glance.
Berlin – Even five years after her disappearance, the mystery surrounding the missing Rebecca from Berlin remains. The missing person case continues to cause mystery. A missing person report with the most important details can still be read on the Berlin police homepage. Investigators continue to try to solve the case Rebecca Reusch yet to be clarified.
Missing Rebecca Reusch: It’s the fifth anniversary of her disappearance
Hardly any missing person case from Germany has caused so many mysteries, speculations and theories for years. February 18, 2024 marks the fifth anniversary of the student’s disappearance. The girl’s brother-in-law is still considered a suspect. Investigators believe that the then 15-year-old could not have left the house of her older sister and brother-in-law alive. But could Rebecca possibly still be alive? Have you even started a new life abroad with a strange man? We go looking for clues and give an overview of the five big theories in the mysterious Rebecca Reusch missing person case.
IPPEN.MEDIA series part 2
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: breaking latest news, status of the investigation and key moments
Theory 1: Investigators believe that Rebecca Reusch did not leave her sister’s house alive
As emphasized in the updated police search call for Rebecca from February 2023, citizens are still regularly reporting to the Berlin police, some of whom have started looking for the missing girl on their own. Accordingly, investigators have received thousands of tips in recent years, but there is still no trace of Rebecca Reusch. However, it quickly turns out for the investigators that the… Missed her older sister’s house could not have left Berlin-Britz alive.
The public prosecutor’s office assumes that the investigation does not relate to a missing person, but to a corpse. Sebastian Büchner, spokesman for the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office, comments Merkur.de von IPPEN.MEDIA as follows: “The file is not closed, new leads are being investigated. But there are currently no new leads from the investigation.”
Martin Steltner from the Berlin public prosecutor’s office already documented this approach in a TV documentary in 2021 RTL Plus comments: “So these are not amateurs who work in such cases,” explains Steltner. “They have determined that there is no other explanation. There is no evidence to suggest any other explanation.” There could theoretically be another explanation, but the facts would have to be considered. If Rebecca had left the house voluntarily, there would be evidence of this.
Missing Rebecca Reusch: Many mysteries – and always a suspicion
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But what could have happened to Rebecca Reusch in her older sister’s house? The police temporarily took the missing girl’s brother-in-law into custody shortly after her disappearance. Florian R. is arrested twice within a few days, but is released again due to a lack of urgent suspicion. To this day, the brother-in-law is considered a suspect.
The certified case analyst and criminologist Axel Petermann gives his assessment IPPEN.MEDIA from: “There seems to be no evidence of a bloody crime in the house itself. But that doesn’t have to be the case, because there are always crimes that are carried out with hands and are bloodless.”
But although the police still seem to be based on this theory, the family of the missing Rebecca Reusch continues to believe that her brother-in-law is innocent. In winter 2021, the parents of the missing Rebecca spoke out in a documentary RTL Plus. Brigitte Reusch describes the relationship between the family and Florian R. with the words: “For Becci it was her big brother.” Bernd Reusch adds: “He is fully integrated.” The presumption of innocence continues to apply to the student’s brother-in-law.
Theory 2: Several people claim to have seen the missing Rebecca after her disappearance
Shortly after Rebecca’s disappearance became public knowledge, a young woman came forward and claimed to have seen the missing woman on the day she disappeared. A neighbor also claims to have seen the missing girl alive on the street.
In the podcast “In the Dark. “The Rebecca Reusch Case” by journalists Lena Niethammer and Miriam Arndts said said neighbor. Accordingly, she saw Rebecca on the street in Berlin-Britz on the day she disappeared. The student is said to have carried the purple blanket under her arm. This was reported by the Berlin police shortly after Disappearance of the student in a public announcement advertised as missing. Although the woman reported the encounter to the police, they simply brushed it off. “Yes / Yes. That couldn’t possibly be the case. The investigation would have revealed something completely different,” the policewoman is said to have replied to the neighbor.
As the journalists explained in the podcast, which extensively investigated the case of the missing student, in winter 2021, the police are said to have reacted similarly to a recent request for the podcast. Accordingly, the neighbor was treated “like all other whistleblowers, appropriately and respectfully”. “Their perception then and now does not match the objective status of the investigation. Woman [ ] “So I must be wrong,” the podcast creators read out the police statement.
Another witness claims to have seen the then 15-year-old at a bus stop on the day she disappeared. “I recognized her face. Once I see people, I don’t mix them up,” the witness explained in an interview at the time RTL. She also reported this to the investigators at the time. The witness is very confident about their encounter, after all, she has known Rebecca for years. She was cheerleading with the sister of the missing woman at the time.
Like public prosecutor Martin Knispel (formerly: Glage). Bild explained in autumn 2021, over time all statements from alleged eyewitnesses could be put into perspective: “This was checked extensively and several times, but she could not be seen on the video cameras in the buses” and: “There are also other clues that Rebecca supposedly gave If we wanted to see other places in the city, we followed up. We can also rule that out today.”
Theory 3: Does Rebecca Reusch possibly have a secret boyfriend or was kidnapped?
The family of the missing Rebecca became the center of public attention immediately after her disappearance. Except for brother-in-law Florian R., who is suspected, all family members presented themselves in the media. In numerous interviews, the girl’s parents, among others, expressed the fear that their daughter might be held against her will.
After the student’s disappearance, a potential online acquaintance was also considered. Friends of Rebecca reported in an interview with the two podcast journalists that she had communicated with a “Max” online. A friend of Rebecca’s reported that the unknown online friend had traveled to Berlin specifically for a meeting, which Rebecca canceled at short notice. The friend also said that she had seen a picture of the online acquaintance. It is said to have been a picture of the young person. So could it be that Rebecca Reusch met an unknown boy from the chat on the day she disappeared? Not clear. So far there appears to be no evidence of a possible kidnapping.
Theory 4: Does Rebecca Reusch now live abroad?
Is it possible that Rebecca Reusch is still alive and may have left the country voluntarily? This hypothesis still cannot be completely rejected. There are several witnesses who claim to have seen the missing person abroad. For example, a witness claimed to have seen Rebecca in a Polish department store. According to his statement, the young girl was accompanied by a man. The eyewitness spoke in the media at the time, describing, among other things, the missing Rebecca Reusch’s braces.
Striking: Like the mother of the missing Rebecca in a TV documentary by RTL Plus At the time, it was not yet known to the public that Rebecca had actually been wearing braces on the day she disappeared.
Brigitte Reusch, Rebecca’s mother, also spoke about other suspected sightings of her daughter in the TV documentary. A passerby claims to have seen Rebecca in a parking lot accompanied by a man. Another woman claims to have recognized Rebecca in Tenerife. “I don’t know if it was Rebecca, but we hope. “Hope dies last,” Brigitte Reusch added at the time. It is completely unclear whether the sightings could actually have been Rebecca. There is still no trace of the student from Berlin.
Theory 5: Was Rebecca buried in a forest in Brandenburg?
A theory that has persisted for years is the possibility that the body of the missing student could have been buried in a forest in Kummersdorf in Brandenburg. Witnesses claim to have seen the brother-in-law’s car there shortly after Rebecca disappeared.
A woman wants one have made special observations in this area, as the journalists of the Rebecca podcast reported. She had therefore told the police that she had seen a man in the forest at that time. This man, who was wearing a baseball cap and is said to have constantly looked around, quickened his pace and almost ran into the forest. The woman would have seen this while riding with her friends.
When the police searched this area of the forest for clues about the missing Rebecca Reusch a few weeks later, the women remembered the man’s strange behavior. Since they had taken photos of their horses in this forest that day, they were able to prove the date of the unusual encounter. The sighting took place on February 18, 2019. The day Rebecca Reusch was officially reported missing.
The witness told journalists that the investigators had contacted her several times and taken their observations seriously. They also mentioned that a friend of the brother-in-law owned a bungalow in this settlement. However, this trail has not yet led to the missing Rebecca Reusch. It is not officially known whether the sighting at that time has any connection to the Rebecca Reusch missing person case.
Also from the There has been no trace of missing Madeleine McCann for years. The little girl from Great Britain disappeared while on family vacation in Portugal.
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at his own discretion. All information has been carefully checked. Find out more about our AI principles here.