Crime scene: Trapped alone

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Episode of the series Tatort
Original title Alone in the trap
Country of production Germany
original language German
Production
company		 SR
length 86 minutes
classification Episode 402 ( List )
First broadcast December 27, 1998 on German television
Rod
Director Hans Noever
script Alex Martin
Marion Reichert
production Telefilm Saar GmbH
music Christopher Evans Ironside
camera Klaus Peter Weber
cut Ulla Blattner
occupation

Alone in the trap is the 402nd TV film in the crime series Tatort and the 15th produced by Saarland Radio . It was first broadcast on December 27, 1998. It is the ninth case with Commissioner Palu as an investigator. Palu has to do with the murder of a bank director and an apparent suspect, whose guilt he doubts.

action

Two masked men attack a bank, although the director Paul Meier does not offer any resistance and is chained by the gangsters in the vault, one of the gangsters cuts the defenseless man's throat. Palu and his colleagues arrive too late, they notice that the perpetrators have proceeded very professionally and left the 1000 DM notes lying around because they are registered, the officers also find a lighter at the crime scene, but the dead man was a non-smoker. Palu and his rival colleague Commissioner Kufner bring the widow the sad news, which says that her husband went out like every Saturday evening. The fingerprints on the lighter quickly lead the officers on the trail of the convicted former Foreign Legionnaire André Berger, who Kufner and his French colleagues arrested on his houseboat in Lorraine. Berger says that he has come to the bank unsuccessfully because of a business start-up loan, he wants nothing to do with the robbery. As an alibi, he claims to have been with the Lorraine prostitute Farida at the time of the crime, but she denies this and claims to have never seen Berger when some of the booty and the murder weapon appear to be found on Berger's houseboat shortly afterwards the case to be resolved. Berger continues to assert his innocence, he knows nothing about the money, the knife is a souvenir from the Foreign Legion, but he did not kill anyone with it. The analysis of the video recordings shows that Meier must have known his killer and have used it, at the same time Palu recognizes that the perpetrator wears the same watch as the murdered man.

Nathalie Meier testifies that her husband received this watch from a Swiss partner bank, it is a custom-made watch that is not available in stores. In addition to her husband, his colleague Aschbach also received one. A review of Aschbach shows that he is in need of money and has not been able to service his home loan with his employer for months, and that he has no alibi for the time of the crime. In terms of stature, too, he could be one of the masked people, and the officials also found out that the brothel in which Farida works is looked after by him as a bank customer. From a colleague Farida, Palu learns that both Aschbach and Meier were regular guests of the brothel, and that Aschbach was there on the evening of the crime. Palu now considers Aschbach to be a diversionary maneuver for the real perpetrators, whom he suspects to be among the bank colleagues, and believes that they were wearing Meier's watch during the attack. Meanwhile, the skin particles under Meier's fingernails have been identified as those of Berger, Berger manages to escape from the presidium, the pursuit by Palu and Kufner remains unsuccessful. Together with his French colleague Fèvre, Palu visits Farida again, who corrects her statement to the effect that Berger was with her on the evening of the crime, but he only spent an hour with her, although he had paid for the entire night. Farida claims to have visited her daughter in the boarding school afterwards, Palu's inquiry in the boarding school confirms the information, shortly afterwards Palu happened to see Farida together with Nathalie Meier in a marketplace, they seem to be very familiar with each other. Palu orders the complete monitoring of both women, and shortly afterwards he learns from the coroner that it is not a problem to place foreign DNA under the fingernails of a dead person, but that the perpetrator also leaves his own.

Since Berger had scratch marks on his face when he was arrested, Palu suspects Farida to have gotten Bergers skin particles as a result of making love. He secretly takes a hair sample from her brush at her workplace. After Palu left, Berger went to Farida and asked for an explanation of what was going on here. Farida promised to meet him the next night, while Palu found out that Berger had been drugged that evening. Palu secretly sneaks into the house of the married couple Meier, where he finds a video cassette that shows how Paul Meier had badly mistreated Farida in the brothel. Farida's pimp Jimmy says that he filmed this session at Meier's request, but he stepped in and got Meier out of the room because he had gone too far. He finally sold the video to Meier at his request, and shortly afterwards Meier's wife appeared in the brothel and contacted Farida. Nathalie Meier contacts Aschbach and urges a meeting, under the eyes of Kufner and his colleague Faller, who are shadowing Aschbach, he drives to the meeting point to which Farida had also lured Berger. The two surprised men meet, Nathalie arrives and shoots Aschbach to cast suspicion on Berger, Berger again flees from Kufner. Since Kufner believes that Berger shot Aschbach, Palu does not get through to the police chief with the presentation of the video and his theory of revenge regarding the wife and Faridas. Berger contacts Palu and protests his innocence, Berger forces the inspector to go to Nathalie Meier with him. Palu found out that Nathalie's father killed her mother, but this could not be proven. He accuses her of killing her husband, when he turned out to be violent towards women, to avenge her mother. Nathalie finally confesses that she can injure Berger's leg and flee.

When the police arrive at the Meier's house, Berger takes Palu hostage, but Palu is able to convince Berger and his colleagues with a recording of Nathalie's confession. Berger releases Palu. Nathalie Meier then flees with Kufner's car and commits suicide in an accident she caused. In the meantime, traces of Berger's DNA have also been found under Paul Meier's fingernails. Farida is arrested after taking her daughter to the airport to travel to an English boarding school, with the daughter carrying most of the booty. Farida allows herself to be arrested without resistance, but does not tell the officials where the money is.

Audience and production

When it was first broadcast on December 27, 1998, the audience reached 6.71 million, which corresponds to an audience rate of 19.80%. The episode was shot in the spring of 1998 in Saarbrücken and the surrounding area as well as in Lorraine.

criticism

The critics of the TV magazine TV-Spielfilm rate this crime scene positively and comment on it: "Typical Palu: weird, level-headed and intuitive".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ tatort-fundus.de: audience share and production
  2. ^ Review on tvspielfilm.de , accessed on April 9, 2016.
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November 22, 1998: Berliner Weisse 		Crime scene follow next episode
January 10, 1999: Greed