Heilbronn Phantom

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The Heilbronner Phantom , also known in the media as a woman without a face , called Unknown Female Person (UwP) by the police , was the target of an extensive manhunt from 2007 to 2009 in southern Germany, Austria and France after the police murder in Heilbronn . On the basis of DNA traces at the crime scene, a connection between this murder and a whole series of other criminal offenses between 1993 and 2009 was suspected, as matching genetic fingerprints were found in traces of 40 other crime scenes .

It was noticeable that in all cases no other traces that could be used for criminal purposes could be found. In particular, there was no useful information about the age or appearance of the person sought. The search remained without result.

At the end of March 2009 it was finally proven that the traces collected in Heilbronn and at the other crime scenes were diagnostic artifacts . The cotton swabs used for securing evidence were contaminated, the DNA could be assigned to a packaging employee of a company involved in the production.

Heilbronn police murder

On April 25, 2007, the law enforcement officer Michèle Kiesewetter was shot dead on the Theresienwiese in Heilbronn and her colleague was seriously injured by a shot in the head . The investigation was initially carried out by the special commission on the parking lot of the Heilbronn Police Department. The main search was for a woman whose name was unknown and whose DNA was found in the trace samples taken from the police officers' vehicle. Due to the large number of crime scenes at which this DNA could be found earlier and which were added in the following years, one suspected a nationally active, seriously criminal and cold-blooded perpetrator, who was searched for accordingly publicly (for example with wanted posters ). In January 2009, the reward offered for information on the identity or whereabouts of the wanted woman was increased to 300,000 euros. The special commission was relocated to the State Criminal Police Office in Baden-Württemberg on February 11, 2009 due to overstaffing .

Since November 7, 2011, the crime has been assigned to the right-wing terrorist group National Socialist Underground .

Other erroneously assigned crimes

The same DNA was found before and after investigating traces of the following other crime scenes :

  • on a cup after the killing of a 62-year-old on 25/26. May 1993 in Idar-Oberstein (DNA analysis 2001)
  • on kitchen drawers after the killing of a 61-year-old on March 24, 2001 in Freiburg im Breisgau
  • on a syringe with heroin in October 2001 in a forest in Gerolstein
  • on a leftover biscuit in a caravan that was broken into on the night of October 25, 2001 in Budenheim
  • on a toy gun after a 2004 robbery on Vietnamese gem dealers in Arbois
  • on a projectile after a dispute between two brothers on May 6, 2005 in Worms
  • in a break-in on July 6, 2006 in an electrical shop in Mauthausen, Austria
  • on a stone after a break-in on October 3, 2006 in a residential and commercial building in the Saarbrücken district of Burbach (DNA analysis April 2008)
  • after a break-in in March 2007 in an optician's shop in Gallneukirchen
  • on a beverage can after a group of young people broke into a school in Saarbrücken on the night of July 7, 2007 (DNA analysis March 2009)
  • after 20 more break-ins and car and motorcycle thefts from 2003 to 2007 in Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Tyrol, Upper Austria and Saarland
  • on a car with which the bodies of three Georgians who were killed in Heppenheim on January 30, 2008 were transported (DNA analysis March 10, 2008)
  • after a break-in into a closed indoor swimming pool in Niederstetten on the night of March 23, 2008
  • after four cases of homejacking in Quierschied (twice), Tholey and Riol in March and April 2008
  • after a burglary in Oberstenfeld -Gronau in the night of April 10, 2008
  • after an attack on a woman on the evening of May 9, 2008 in a club house in Saarhölzbach
  • at an apartment door after a quarrel between two men on October 7, 2008 in Mannheim (DNA analysis January 2009)
  • in the car of a nursing assistant who was found dead near Weinsberg at the end of October 2008

In total, the DNA was found in samples from at least 40 crime scenes, particularly in Baden-Württemberg , Rhineland-Palatinate , Saarland and Austria , including in six murder cases. The traces went back to 1993. It was also irritating that there was never a single parallel trace of the phantom at any of the many crime scenes: There were no witnesses who had seen the person, nor were there fingerprints, hair, fibers, shoe prints or any other traces of the person.

An examination of the mitochondrial DNA carried out at the Institute for Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Innsbruck , the Austrian Central DNA Laboratory, showed that the DNA exhibits characteristics that occur more frequently in Eastern Europe and in the neighboring Russian Federation.

After the DNA of the unknown suspect was found on a beverage can and on the fingerprints of a male asylum seeker who had been missing since 2002 after a break-in at a school in Saarbrücken (an attempt was made to extract the missing person's DNA from the fingerprints of the missing person ), doubts about the reality of the phantom intensified .

Clarification of the investigation mishap: contamination of the DNA swab sets

In addition to the actual presence of the same person at all crime scenes, there were also alternative explanations for finding the same DNA over and over again.

On the one hand, wrong DNA traces could have been deliberately placed. This was rejected as implausible for various reasons:

  • The traces from which the DNA was obtained (saliva, sweat, blood, skin cells) were very different.
  • The laying of these false tracks in 1993 and 2001 should have been very foresighted.
  • Since it was always the same DNA, all of these crimes would have to have been committed by the same group of perpetrators in this case, but this had already been classified as highly unlikely.

According to these considerations, the laying of false leads by the real perpetrator or perpetrators was ruled out at human discretion.

On the other hand, there was speculation early on that some of the equipment for securing and analyzing evidence had been contaminated. The DNA found would then be that of a person who came into contact with the cotton swab during its production. In theory, this could have happened when the cotton was picked.

In the present case, this source of error was initially excluded because of the geographical accumulation of finds and negative control examinations of “fresh” cotton swabs.

In March 2009, the contamination thesis was discussed again. The investigating authorities have now looked into the possibility of contamination again, as some of the DNA traces could definitely no longer be explained plausibly from a criminalist point of view. The search for the phantom ended with the knowledge that the cotton swabs , with which the DNA traces are usually recorded at a crime scene, were contaminated.

The responsible police authorities in all places where the phantom's DNA had been found had obtained their swab sets from Greiner Bio-One in Frickenhausen . This also explains why no such DNA traces were found in Bavaria (whose police obtain cotton swabs from another manufacturer). This solved the mystery of the strange geographical distribution of the DNA sites and the diversity of the cases in which they appeared. The DNA contamination on the cotton swabs came from an employee of the packaging company Böhm Kunststofftechnik in Tettau- Langenau in Upper Silesia. There, the wooden cotton swabs imported from China were manually mounted on sealing plugs and packed in plastic tubes. Although the employees wear protective clothing to protect the cotton swabs from contamination, a DNA-free product was never required. In Austria, such a contamination of the DNA swab sets had been suspected since April 2008.

In this context it turned out that there are no binding quality or sterility standards for this crucial component of the legal DNA evidence. This finding led to a discussion about the quality standards of cotton swabs and where to buy this product. The main problem here is that the relevant standards are only recommendations. The authorities want to get guarantees for the quality of the cotton swabs in the future. In July 2009 it was stipulated that the Baden-Württemberg police were only allowed to use cotton swabs cleaned with ethylene oxide to collect DNA at crime scenes - this method is currently the best way to ensure that the collection set itself is not contaminated with DNA before use. The cotton swabs should only be obtained from the central purchasing department of the police.

The Greiner Bio-One company had meanwhile pointed out on its website that its swab sets were sterile, but not guaranteed to be DNA-free and therefore only suitable for bacteriological smears, but not for molecular diagnostic analyzes such as taking DNA traces and that this was clearly evident from the product description and the package insert. On March 30, 2009, Greiner Bio-One had to admit that some batches of their swab sets had apparently enclosed a certificate stating that the cotton swabs were DNA-free, although this was not the case.

reception

The episode The Invisible Woman of the Radio-Tatort produced by Radio Bremen in 2009 deals with the case. As the investigation mishap only became known shortly before the first broadcast, the radio play was reworked within a short time in order to be able to incorporate the actual solution to the case (contaminated cotton swabs).

The phantom is treated in literary terms in the novel Icy Close by the author Andreas Franz from 2010. There, too, the DNA of the unknown female person is found at various crime scenes. The time of the novel is set shortly after the discovery of the contaminated cotton swab, but this explanation is doubted in the book.

The novel Lisa by the Austrian author Thomas Glavinic, published in 2011, is based on the story of the phantom: In the novel, a paranoid man and his eight-year-old son withdraw into the wilderness to escape a murderer and thief whose DNA was found at numerous crime scenes . Said perpetrator is first referred to in the book as a phantom, later as Lisa . In the end, the reader learns of contaminated DNA sticks that dissolve the phantom in air.

The fourth episode of the sixth season of the TV series CSI: NY (original title: Dead Reckoning ; German title: Das DNS-Phantom ) was based on the case of the Heilbronn Phantom. Also the first episode of the 15th season of the English series Forensic Medicine Dr. Leo Dalton (orig .: Silent Witness ) is based on the case. In the Elementary series , the theme was taken up in the episode "The Spirit of Brooklyn " (7x9, original title: On the Scent ).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Places where the DNA has been found so far , Stimme.de
  2. ↑ "Phantom Murderess" is a phantom. In: Spiegel-Online. March 27, 2009.
  3. ↑ Carsten Friese: Heilbronn police murder: LKA takes over phantom case . In: Heilbronn voice . February 12, 2009 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on February 12, 2009]).
  4. ^ A b Christian Schüle: The Invisible One . In: The time. No. 18, April 24, 2008, p. 17.
  5. ↑ Jörg Diehl: Hunt for the Phantom . In: Spiegel Online. March 28, 2008, accessed February 7, 2009.
  6. ↑ Andreas Ulrich: Police are investigating new leads to the phantom . In: Spiegel Online. June 17, 2008, accessed February 7, 2009.
  7. ↑ Heilbronn police murder: Phantom leaves DNA trail in a school . Stimme.de, March 18, 2009.
  8. ↑ Carsten Friese: And again the accomplices of the phantom are silent . In: Heilbronn voice . December 19, 2008 ( from Stimme.de [accessed December 21, 2008]).
  9. ↑ "Phantom" leaves traces of DNA again . In: Spiegel Online. August 7, 2008.
  10. ↑ The "woman without a face" is back , derNewsticker.de, February 6, 2009, accessed on February 6, 2009.
  11. ↑ New trace of the phantom . In: Spiegel Online. February 7, 2009. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  12. ↑ Helmut Buchholz, Andreas Tschürtz: Phantom returns to the Heilbronn region . In: Heilbronn voice . December 19, 2008 ( from Stimme.de [accessed December 21, 2008]). Carsten Friese, Helmut Buchholz: What does the phantom have to do with the nursing assistant? In: Heilbronn voice . December 20, 2008 ( from Stimme.de [accessed December 21, 2008]).
  13. ↑ Investigators find new traces of the phantom . In: Spiegel Online. December 18, 2008, accessed February 7, 2009.
  14. ↑ a b Netzeitung: The cotton swab GAU of the police. ( Memento of April 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) March 26, 2009.
  15. ↑ Carsten Friese: The phantom's skin and eye color remain a secret . In: Heilbronn voice . August 28, 2008 ( from Stimme.de [accessed December 21, 2008]).
  16. ↑ Netzeitung: Heilbronn «Phantom» is probably disappearing into thin air ( memento of March 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) of March 25, 2009.
  17. ↑ That shouldn't have happened. In: Spiegel Online. March 26, 2009.
  18. ↑ Carsten Friese: Wrong DNA traces? Police reject theory . In: Heilbronn voice . December 24, 2008 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on February 16, 2009]).
  19. ↑ "Phantom" -Jäger include laboratory mishaps from - search for killer continues ( Memento of 30 January 2009 at the Internet Archive ). In: Pforzheimer Zeitung. December 26, 2008, accessed February 7, 2009.
  20. ↑ Malte Arnsperger, Gerald Drissner and others: Solved the mystery of the “Phantom”? stern.de, March 25, 2009, accessed on March 25, 2009.
  21. ↑ Is the "Phantom of Heilbronn" just a phantom? In: FAZ. March 26, 2009.
  22. ↑ Cotton swab "Phantom": 71-year-old packer "exposed". on: n-tv. April 17, 2009. (n-tv.de)
  23. ↑ Franconian Day. April 16, 2009, local section Kronach, p. 9.
  24. ↑ Cotton swab scandal: there is demonstrably no phantom murderer. March 27, 2009.
  25. ↑ The phantom comes from the Franconian Forest. In: Franconian Day. (inFranken.de), March 27, 2009.
  26. ↑ Weak point of cotton swabs. In: Spiegel-Online. March 26, 2009.
  27. ↑ Barbara-Ellen Ross, Ulrike Winter: The breakdowns in the phantom case. In: RP-Online. March 27, 2009. ( nachrichten.rp-online.de ( memento of March 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ))
  28. ↑ Police set new standards for cotton swabs. In: Spiegel-Online. July 7, 2009.
  29. ↑ faz.de: In the dead end with item number 420180. March 27, 2009.
  30. ↑ Art.-No .: 420180: Product description. ( Memento from January 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) greinerbioone.com
  31. ↑ Smear sets from Greiner Bio-One GmbH are not suitable for DNA analysis. (No longer available online.) Greiner Bio-One GmbH, March 27, 2009, archived from the original on March 30, 2009 ; accessed on October 31, 2015 .
  32. ↑ Phantom case: Company guaranteed the purity of the cotton swabs. In: Spiegel Online. March 30, 2009, accessed February 20, 2010 .