Raven Vollrath murder case

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Raven Vollrath (* July 22, 1980 ; † on the night of December 23 to 24, 2005 in Zöblen ) was a German seasonal worker and murder victim . The circumstances of his death were only cleared up through research by his parents with the help of the Austrian television program Thema about the journalist Zoran Dobric . The misconduct of the Tyrolean authorities was criticized in full.

Murder case

Raven Vollrath, from Ilmenau in Thuringia , worked as a seasonal worker in Tyrol and lived for a short time with his good friend Markus H. and his mother Gabriele S. right next to the lift in the Zöblen ski area . He was last seen near the property on December 23, 2005. The parents turned to the police after a short time, but they refused to investigate weeks after his disappearance without a trace.

On June 10, 2006, about six months after his disappearance, German tourists discovered Vollrath's half-decayed body lying on a mattress in a river bed near his accommodation. She was only dressed in socks, underpants and a short-sleeved T-shirt. The Tyrolean authorities developed the thesis that Vollrath was heavily drunk and left his room with that mattress only with socks on his feet. He then covered the two-and-a-half-kilometer distance on foot on a street and finally lay down to sleep on the mattress in a stream bed, whereupon he froze to death after a short time at a temperature of −11 ° C. The Tyrolean forensic doctor Dr. Walter Rabl carried out the autopsy and could not find any signs of external fault. The public prosecutor closed the case and Vollrath's parents, dissatisfied with the work of the police, continued their own research.

In May 2007, the parents turned to the Austrian television program Thema , which is broadcast on ORF 2 . The journalist Zoran Dobric took up the topic and soon discovered that the police had failed to do so, as they had asked almost no one about Vollrath's disappearance. His friend Markus H. was only questioned seven weeks after Vollrath's last sign of life, while the mother and the later finders of his body were never questioned. Weeks later, the car was parked unlocked in front of the accommodation and, like the room he was in on the day of his disappearance, was never examined for traces. On a photo of the body taken by Dr. Rabl was shot during the autopsy, there were apparently two holes in the chest area of ​​the murder victim's T-shirt, which were very likely caused by a sharp object. This T-shirt had been burned in forensic medicine and could no longer be examined. Further evidence ultimately leads to the reopening of the case by the Tyrolean public prosecutor's office.

On the basis of Dobric's research, Gabriele S. was finally asked on February 19, 2008 in Kempten, Germany, about Raven Vollrath's death, but initially denied any knowledge of his fate. When interrogated again an hour later, she admitted that her son Markus H. got into an argument with Vollrath on the night of December 24, 2005. This had escalated and H. then stabbed Vollrath several times with a knife. The mother and son's body was then brought into his car. Both drove across the German border to get rid of the dead body there. However, this failed and they drove back to their apartment, where they left the car. In the evening hours of December 24th, Markus H. dragged the body to where it was later found. H. was later arrested in Germany and charged with murder .

Before the trial, Vollrath's parents had Vollrath's body exhumed in Jena . Even just looking at the corpse, cuts and injuries caused by a knife were discovered. Dr. Rabl later stated that he simply had not seen the holes or the injuries and pointed out that the investigation of the clothing was carried out by the forensic department and was not his job. On September 25, 2008, almost three years after the murder, the trial of Markus H. took place in the Meiningen District Court . Like his mother, H. remained silent about the allegations. The poor investigative work of the Tyrolean authorities was also criticized in the court, as a lack of evidence and other omissions made the circumstantial process more difficult. On December 18, Markus H. was sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter . In 2012, a lawsuit brought by the parents against the Republic of Austria for damages in the amount of 120,000 euros was dismissed.

Work-up

Zoran Dobric dealt with the failings of the Tyrolean authorities in a topic report which was broadcast on ORF2 on December 22, 2008. For this he received on May 28, 2009 from the then Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer the Robert Hochner Prize .

The murder case was featured on the television show Fact Murder? On the trail of the crime treated on Sat.1 and under the title The Raven Vollrath case: Was it murder? aired on August 24, 2016.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f "Topic" report by Zoran Dobric about Raven Vollrath In: YouTube from June 13, 2016 (accessed December 29, 2019)
  2. Murder discovered by Jülichern solved In: Aachener Zeitung of October 13, 2011 (accessed on May 4, 2020)
  3. a b Raven Vollrath, Susi Greiner, Luca Elias, and Denisa Soltisova In: Cold a Long Time (accessed on December 22, 2019)
  4. Sensational turning point in the Vollrath case In: ORF.at from February 21, 2008 (accessed on May 4, 2020)
  5. No compensation for the parents of murder victim Raven Vollrath In: Tiroler Tageszeitung from October 29, 2012 (accessed on December 29, 2019)
  6. ORF “Thema” editor Zoran Dobric honored with “Robert Hochner Prize” In: Internet Archive (accessed on December 22, 2019)
  7. The Raven Vollrath Case: Was It Murder? In: Sat.1 from August 24, 2016 (accessed May 4, 2020)