University phantom
A sex offender was known as the “Uni-Phantom” of Bochum , who is said to have committed up to 21 sexual offenses first in the Ennepe-Ruhr district and later in Bochum . The first act was committed in Sprockhövel in 1994 , the last rape attributed to him happened in December 2002.
Actions and perpetrator profile
The first victim of the serial offender was a 12-year-old student from Sprockhövel at the time. She was raped in a wooded area on January 7, 1994 at around 1:10 pm on her way home from school. In September 1994 the perpetrator struck Sprockhövel for the second time and sexually abused a 44-year-old. Further acts followed in the vicinity of Sprockhövel until 1996, before the perpetrator struck for the first time in Bochum in June 1996. From then on, the perpetrator mainly sought out young women in the vicinity of the Ruhr University Bochum as victims and thus committed further rapes in Bochum until 2002. Another rape of the man became known in 2003; the time of the crime was August 2001. The fact that the rapes were committed by one and the same perpetrator could be determined by DNA examinations of traces of saliva and semen.
The extensive police investigations have led to various findings over the years. Early phantom images show the perpetrator as a middle-aged man, slim and with a mustache. He carried out his later deeds masked, dressed in all black and with a baseball cap. Based on the statements made about the first offenses, the police assume that the perpetrator has good local knowledge of the Sprockhövel area. Possibly he lives or lived in Sprockhövel, and he could still have family contacts here. All crime scenes were in the area of public transport stops, this is where the perpetrator may have seen his victims for the first time. The perpetrator primarily chooses young women as victims, as these usually have different leisure activities than older women and are also on the move at night and by public transport. There are many student dormitories in the vicinity of Bochum University and therefore also many young women. This is also seen as the main reason why the perpetrator moved his crime scenes from Sprockhövel to Bochum. The perpetrator often used a knife with which he threatened his victims.
The time intervals between the acts are also noticeable. There was often only a few weeks between the first acts and never more than half a year. A first series of crimes can be narrowed down to the period from 1994 to 1997. The perpetrator committed the last act of this first series of rape on November 18, 1997. After that, the perpetrator did not strike for almost three years. The next act took place in the summer of 2000. Another act followed in August 2000, before the perpetrator paused his crimes again. The next known case comes from August 2001, and another series of rape took place between summer and December 2002. On December 1, 2002, the perpetrator committed his last known act. Since then he has not struck in the Bochum area and leaves many questions unanswered by the police.
Investigation Commission Messer
The serial offender, baptized by the press as a university phantom , caused a large-scale manhunt by the Bochum police. After his last act in 2002, up to 40 officers were on night duty at potential crime scenes in Bochum for months. The Messer Investigation Commission (EK Messer for short) at times comprised up to 20 employees, and in the meantime a profiler from Scotland Yard was brought in . Students and employees of the Ruhr University as well as men from Sprockhövel and Bochum were asked for saliva samples , which was especially criticized by some students. A law student who refused a saliva sample went to the Federal Constitutional Court, but in vain. The more than 10,000 saliva samples in the end among the groups of people narrowed down by profilers were also unsuccessful. Bochum police turned the course of the investigation work and to the ZDF , a review of the rape series was broadcast as part of the unsolved file number XY ... aired.
Even after many years, clues still reach the Bochum police, so that the investigative commission continues to exist.
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of all acts by the Bochum Police Headquarters ( Memento from July 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ How does the perpetrator get to his victims? - Bochum police
- ^ Campus of Fear , NEON, April 5, 2005