Missing case family Schulze
The Schulze family from Drage near Hamburg has been missing since July 22, 2015. Father Marco Schulze's body was found a week later; There is still no trace of mother Sylvia and daughter Miriam.
background
Marco Schulze (* approx. 1974) was a trained farmer. At the end of the 1990s he worked as a driver for a laundry, but quit there at the turn of the millennium in order to work again in the profession he had learned. He found a job with a pig farmer near Lüneburg. In 2002 he met his future wife Sylvia (* approx. 1972), who already had a daughter (* approx. 1990) from a previous relationship. The two had a daughter, Miriam (* approx. 2003), built a single-family house in Drage in 2004 and married on November 1, 2007.
Sylvia Schulze's older daughter was no longer living in the same household when the family disappeared. Marco Schulze was employed in a chemical factory in Geesthacht , on the weekends he also worked as a truck driver for a supermarket chain. He also helped out at the riding school, where his daughter took riding lessons. Sylvia Schulze worked as a deputy branch manager at a discounter in Geesthacht. She has been described as very reliable.
Marco Schulze has been described by witnesses, including his stepdaughter, as a caring and loving family man. A friend described him as a helpful person who wanted to “always be there for everyone”.
Sylvia Schulze's older daughter reported that her stepfather had alcohol problems and that a few days before he disappeared he had to surrender his driver's license due to drunk driving, which meant he lost his part-time job as a driver. One witness stated that Sylvia Schulze had intended to separate from her husband; A friend of the family reported an argument in which Marco Schulze threatened suicide if they separated. According to the police, however, there was no evidence of a separation. The former head of the special commission Schulze reported that the day before the disappearance was “different than usual”, that something “depressed the family”. From Marco Schulze's point of view, there may have been “an insurmountable conflict between men and women”.
Daughter Miriam had planned riding holidays with a friend from the neighborhood, which should start on July 25th. This friend's mother later said that Miriam had recently said “that she was not sure whether it would work”. On July 21, the day before the disappearance, the family was seen at a horse farm near Drage. The parents had booked a vacation for two in Mexico (depending on the sources for August or autumn).
Course of events
July 22, 2015, a Wednesday, was the last day of school before the summer holidays. Miriam Schulze was reported sick by her parents at school on the morning of July 22nd; according to other sources, she had been absent for more than a week. She did not show up for a doctor's appointment on the same day, so there was no more sign of life from her on July 22nd (according to other sources, she wrote a WhatsApp message to a friend at noon on July 22nd ). Sylvia Schulze drove to her place of work as usual, which the investigators take as a sign that her daughter was still alive at the time. At around 1:45 p.m., she received a text message from her husband asking her to come home because Miriam was worse off. At around 4:20 pm, she left work and drove home, where she arrived at 4:50 pm. On July 23, she stayed away from work without excuse and could not be reached by cell phone.
Marco Schulze was off on July 22nd. At 5:25 p.m. he received a call from the horse farm where he was helping out and was asked if he could come the next day. Contrary to his usual habit, he hesitated to accept. At around 7:30 p.m. he was seen sweeping out a stable on the horse farm. He was also seen that evening when he put the garbage can in front of the door of his house. Witnesses claim to have seen him on July 23 at around 7:30 a.m. on the Elbe near Stove , where he drove his wife's car, a gray Dacia Sandero , towards Drage.
Investigations
When Sylvia Schulze did not show up for work on July 24th, colleagues alerted the police. After she was able to determine that Marco Schulze had not come to work either, the family house was opened. The windows of the house were tilted; The family's two cats were in the house or in the shed, and the family's purses and identification papers were also found in the house. Both of the family's cars were in the carport. There was no suicide note, nor was there any evidence of blood or battle marks in the house or in the cars.
Miriam's favorite cuddly toys could not be found; In addition, a green men's bicycle was missing from the household (this was found on July 30th at the train station in Winsen ). The family's cell phones were also not found; Location attempts showed that they were no longer logged into the network and were probably switched off. Sylvia Schulze's cell phone connected to the home WiFi at 4:50 p.m. on July 22; Marco Schulze's cell phone went offline on July 22nd at 8:58 pm.
A spontaneous short vacation seemed unlikely in view of the traces.
First the police looked for the missing persons with the support of the fire brigade in Drage and expanded the search more and more until it was suspended on August 5th. According to evidence from witnesses, there were also individual searches in the period that followed, for example at the mill pond in Holm-Seppensen , in the Elbe near Hoopte and on the bank near Geesthacht and near Radbruch . Among other things, helicopters, sniffer dogs, divers and sonar boats were used. On July 27, the police first asked the public for information. Even tips from hobby detectives and clairvoyants were followed up.
The television program Aktenzeichen XY… ungelöst reported on the case on August 12, 2015 and again on June 29, 2016. Despite numerous hints, there was no “hot lead”.
The Schulze Special Commission was reduced to three employees at the end of August 2015, and later to one, and was finally dissolved in March 2016 after all traces had been processed.
As it became known in May 2017, private investigators had already found items of clothing near the family's home in December 2016 and handed them over to the police, who initiated a DNA analysis . However, the investigations revealed in July 2017 that the clothes did not belong to the Schulzes.
The body of Marco Schulze is found
On July 31, residents in Lauenburg , about 400 m from the Elbe bridge , observed a corpse drifting near the bank and called the police. The dead man could be identified as Marco Schulze; drowning was given as the cause of death. The time of death was dated on the night of July 23rd to 24th.
The body was weighted down with a cinder block that was fastened to the body with lashing straps and was wearing yellow work gloves. The concrete block came from a construction site on the bridge. A ladies' bicycle from the Schulze household was found in the river under the bridge. There were other straps on the luggage rack, identical to those on Schulze's body. The body was found 20-25 km upstream from where the family lived. There were no traces of his wife or daughter there. Based on the evidence, the investigators assumed a suicide .
According to the investigators, Marco Schulze first killed his wife and daughter and then committed suicide. Since according to German law there is no investigation against the deceased, the murder investigations have been stopped. The case has been treated as a missing person since then.
Hypotheses
Killing by the father
The police assume that Marco Schulze first killed his wife and daughter, then killed himself. However, there is no motive for the act. According to the police, there were no indications of a possible separation, even if this cannot be completely ruled out. The financial situation was also not conspicuous. What is unusual about the course of events hypothesis, however, is that Marco Schulze must have made a great effort to keep the facts and corpses hidden.
In August 2015, a witness reported that she had observed the family on July 22nd - the day they disappeared - after 6 p.m. at the mill pond in Holm-Seppensen . She heard scraps of conversation in which the nickname of Sylvia Schulze's older daughter is said to have fallen, which was only used within the family. Later the witness claims to have heard screams, including “What is this about? Are you crazy? ”And“ Papa, stop that ”; then a bang like a bursting balloon.
The area was searched with detection dogs in mid-August, 3–4 weeks after the sighting. Traces of odor from father, mother and daughter leading to the lake were actually found, but only the father's trace led away from the lake. Due to the time lag between the sighting and the search, the tracks may no longer be intense enough to be followed by the dogs.
According to the reconstruction of the daily routine, Marco Schulze would have had 30 minutes to kill his wife and daughter and then make them disappear. Due to the popularity of the place with walkers and joggers, the investigators consider an unnoticed double murder at this point and the removal of both corpses to be unlikely, but not entirely ruled out.
Sylvia Schulze's older daughter said in May 2016 that she assumed that her stepfather killed his wife and their daughter. Through his work, he had access to chemicals with which it was possible to make a corpse disappear without a trace. According to the police, all acids in the company that Marco Schulze worked for were checked for shortages.
The Linz psychiatrist and appraiser Adelheid Kastner described Schulze's behavior as unusual for an extended suicide: This usually occurs as a result of depression with the primary intention of suicide. In such a case, dependent persons, such as children or relatives in need of care, whom the perpetrator does not consider viable on their own, would be taken with him to death in order not to leave them alone; There is usually no motive for killing an independent adult. For them, the circumstances point to an "extended murder":
“Then it can be assumed that Sylvia Schulze wanted to separate. He killed her to take revenge, to cause her suffering, coupled with a dramatic self-exaggeration: he made the decision. And then evaded the consequences with his suicide. "
According to Kastner, in such cases there is usually another stress factor in addition to the separation, such as financial problems, job loss or fear of social decline. The statement suggests that Marco Schulze must have planned the double murder: A spontaneously acting perpetrator finds himself in an exceptional emotional situation after the act and is barely able to hide two corpses without being found.
Immersion of mother and daughter
According to the police, there is no evidence of mother and daughter going into hiding together. However, witnesses responded to the "Aktenzeichen XY" broadcast in June 2016, claiming to have seen mother and daughter at home and abroad.
consequences
Sylvia Schulze can be declared dead in 2026 at the earliest, ten years after the end of the year of her disappearance, her daughter Miriam from the end of the year in which she would have been 25 years old.
The family's property was administered by a lawyer. The family's cars and house were sold, and the proceeds were deposited into a blocked account.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Family Schulze: Daughter thinks stepfather is the perpetrator. In: Stern . May 11, 2016, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m the Schulze family and the Drage riddle. In: Stern . July 22, 2016, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Missed for three years: What happened to the Schulze family from Drage? In: Stern . July 20, 2018, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Divers in the mill pond. In: time. August 20, 2015, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b File number XY: Missing people from Drage seen abroad? In: New Osnabrück Newspaper . June 30, 2016, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Miriam and Sylvia Schulze: It all started a year ago today. In: SHZ. July 22, 2016, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Mystery of missing family still unsolved. In: world. June 21, 2016, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f At 8:58 p.m., Marco's cell phone logged off the radio network. In: Kreiszeitung Wochenblatt. July 23, 2016, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e The Schulze case in Drage remains a mystery. In: n-tv . July 22, 2016, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Where is the Schulze family? In: Stern . July 28, 2015, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c When the Schulzes simply disappeared. In: n-tv . July 22, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ New information about the Schulze family, but not a hot lead. In: Stern . August 13, 2015, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ New lead in the case of the missing family from Drage? In: world. May 21, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Dead from the Elbe is a missing family man. In: Stern . August 1, 2015, accessed December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Drage case: When suddenly a family disappeared. In: LN Online. July 22, 2018, accessed December 15, 2019 .