Kidnapping of Ylenia Lenhard
Ylenia Lenhard , born on November 18, 2001, was a girl from Appenzell ( Switzerland ) who disappeared at his place of residence on the morning of July 31, 2007 and was found dead on September 15, 2007 in Oberbüren , Canton St. Gallen .
The investigation was first by the cantonal police of Appenzell Inner Rhodes out. Later, when there was a connection between the kidnapping and a gunshot attack as well as a suicide, also from the St. Gallen canton police and, after further information, from the Appenzell Ausserrhoden canton police . Later, the Canton police for clues in Thurgau Thurgau consulted and the inter-cantonal Special Commission "Rebecca" in Bern on. In the search for the missing girl, the military was also involved and officials from the Principality of Liechtenstein were involved.
procedure
On August 1, 2007, five-year-old Ylenia was reported missing to the Appenzell Innerrhoden canton police. She wanted to get her shampoo in the indoor pool on July 31st, which she had left there the day before. She was last seen leaving the indoor pool. When Ylenia did not come home, the mother informed the canton police. On the same day in Bürerstich near the motorway bridge near the hamlet of Schollrüti near Oberbüren on the edge of Hartmannswald a man was shot by an unknown person. The police were looking for a white box van with a Spanish license plate, which had also been seen in front of the indoor swimming pool in Appenzell.
On the evening of July 31, the van was found on the edge of the Hohrainwald above Billwil in the municipality of Oberbüren, around three kilometers from Hartmannswald. The following day, police search dogs found the body of the owner who had committed suicide near the vehicle. It was Urs Hans von Aesch, a Swiss Abroad living in Spain . During the forensic examination of the van, DNA traces later revealed that Ylenia had been in the vehicle. Later, strollers found Ylenia's rucksack with her clothes and her bike helmet near Billwil and her scooter near Hartmannswald.
On August 3, the Kapo Appenzell Innerrhoden issued an urgent appeal to house owners and landlords to search mountain huts, cellars and vacant rooms because Urs Hans von Aesch had previously visited properties for weeks . It was also announced that von Aesch had been convicted of extortion with threatened child abduction in Zurich at the age of 20. He and his wife lived in seclusion in Spain. He had equipped his house with a self-firing system and surrounded it with a security fence.
There was no trace of Ylenia that day either; the search was suspended until the morning of August 4th. On the same day, the special commission “Rebecca” and Interpol were switched on because, according to speculations in the Swiss newspaper Blick, there were alleged connections with the missing girl Madeleine McCann , who was reported missing in Portugal on May 3. When these speculations also circulated in the English-language press, the police denied the rumors.
In the following three weeks, both police and private individuals searched the surrounding forests in vain for Ylenia. The military were later called in to search. The case was also described in the ZDF broadcast Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved , but without any significant results.
On September 15, 2007, Ylenia's body was found in Hartmannswald by a private person who had been looking for Ylenia for three weeks. The body was buried about 50 centimeters deep and partially exposed by wild animals. The site was also about 200 meters away from where Ylenia's kickboard was found and about 2.7 kilometers from where her utensils were found near Billwil.
Forensic and forensic examinations showed that Ylenia had not been subjected to physical violence or sexually assaulted. The exact place and exact time of her death can no longer be determined “after such a long time”, said Bruno Fehr from the St. Gallen Police Department. The completed investigations on November 19, 2007 revealed that Ylenia died of toluene poisoning.
On September 20, 2007, on a stretch of the road near Hartmannswald, von Aesch's pistol was found, with which he had shot a possible witness on July 31.
Criticism of coverage of the newspaper Blick
After repeated speculations by the tabloid Blick, the St. Gallen canton police had to publish several corrections. For example, it was reported that von Aesch was in Portugal, had a clean shave and the police were looking for a second man.
The St. Gallen police chief Bruno Fehr: “Without public relations work and the media, the police cannot do their work in a criminal case like Ylenia. But if the tabloids start wild speculation and witnesses who have long been questioned by the police and whose statements have been assessed as untrustworthy, receive a platform in the media, it becomes problematic. Such appearances only cause fear and uncertainty in the population and do nothing to clear up the case. "
The St. Gallen public prosecutor's office criticized the tabloid Blick , claiming that it “deliberately misinformed the public”. Police forces would be unnecessarily tied up for investigations and hopes would be raised in the relatives of Ylenia that had no real basis, said Thomas Hansjakob, First Public Prosecutor of the Canton of St. Gallen.
The mother of the missing child and relatives also criticized the fact that these “wild speculations” (St. Gallen canton police) had repeatedly given them false hopes.
reward
For information that led to the discovery of Ylenia, the Kapo Appenzell Innerrhoden offered a reward totaling 21,500 francs or 13,000 euros. The funds come from private sources. The reward was paid to the person who found the body.
Foundation, endowment
Ylenia's mother said in a conversation on Swiss television that she wanted to set up the Ylenia Foundation together with the victim's uncle so that the death of her child would not be completely pointless. This should support children in need.
Political Consequences
The great concern over Ylenia's disappearance triggered the demand for a national rapid alert system to be created in Switzerland for such cases, as is the case in France and other countries. The Legal Commission of the National Council decided on two motions.
Justice Minister Christoph Blocher wrote on September 9, 2007 in response to a call to politicians to take measures, which was published in the French-speaking daily Le Nouvelliste with the support of 100 celebrities , including the following: «The National Council's legal commission has two Motions decided, which will soon be answered by the Federal Council . Without anticipating the deliberations in the Federal Council, I assume that it will examine these proposals benevolently. At its meeting on September 13, 2007, the Conference of Cantonal Police Commanders (KKPKS) discussed the question of the possible introduction of such a system with the director of the Federal Office of Police. Existing alarm systems will be checked and reports will follow this year. The Association of Swiss Police Chiefs (VSKC) will deal with this topic next week. I will also discuss this question with the members of the cantonal government at the meeting of the Conference of Cantonal Justice and Police Directors (KKJPD) on November 15, 2007 in St. Gallen. The close cooperation with the cantons results from the cantonal police sovereignty and the fact that the authority to prosecute child abductions lies with the cantons. "
In the face of opposition from data protection circles, the events in the “Ylenia case” in Switzerland are the first to call for a sex offender database. This demand is made, among others, by the intercantonal Soko Rebecca, which is now reopening the series of similar cases in the 1980s.
Individual evidence
- ^ Family obituary
- ↑ NZZ: British police are examining possible connection between the Ylenia and Madeleine cases , July 7, 2013, accessed on July 19, 2016
- ↑ St. Gallen public prosecutor's office directs serious allegations against the tabloid Blick in the Ylenia case ; polizei-schweiz.ch dated August 7, 2007.
- ^ Federal Department of Justice and Police: Alarm system in the event of child kidnapping ( memo of February 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ); FDJP media release of September 21, 2007.
