After 25 years, the Frankfurt am Main public prosecutor’s office has new leads.Image: DPA
May 18, 2026, 1:01 p.mMay 18, 2026, 1:01 p.m
Manhunt success after a quarter of a century: 25 years after a woman’s body was found in Frankfurt, the identity of the dead woman has been clarified and her father has been arrested.
The 67-year-old is strongly suspected of having killed his then 16-year-old daughter in 2001 and throwing her body into the Main, the Frankfurt am Main public prosecutor’s office and the State Criminal Police Office of the German state of Hesse announced on Monday.
The German national, who was born in Pakistan, was brought directly before a judge after his arrest last week. He is now in custody.
“Identify Me” is a campaign to identify women
The 16-year-old’s body was discovered floating in the river by passers-by on the afternoon of July 31, 2001. Her identity had remained unknown for decades – until now. “The crucial clues came from the international campaign “Identify Me,” as part of which a call was made in October 2024 to provide information about the identity of the “Girl from the Main” and to identify the perpetrator,” it said.
The body was found floating in the Main by passers-by. Image: imago
According to the investigation, the 67-year-old is said to have killed his daughter with a number of brutal blows between July 28 and 31, 2001 in what was then the family apartment in Offenbach. He is then said to have wrapped the 16-year-old’s body in a leopard-print bed sheet, tied it up and attached it to a parasol stand – and then threw it into the Main in Frankfurt.
It initially remained unclear how the father responded to the allegations.
The teenager had been abused for years before his death
After the body was found, the perpetrator was also searched for on the television program “Aktenzeichen XY”. A special commission called “Leopard” was involved in the case and followed up on numerous clues and leads. The autopsy at the time revealed that the young person had been killed with blows to the chest and stomach and had previously been abused for several years.
“No perpetrator can ever feel safe in getting away unpunished,” said Hesse’s Justice Minister Christian Heinz. “Our law enforcement authorities are not letting up and are doing everything they can to solve the crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice. The recent success of the investigation proves this very impressively.”
“Identify Me” is an international search campaign to identify women whose bodies were found in six European countries, many of whom are believed to have been murdered. Most cases are unexplained old cases, so-called cold cases. Their bodies were found in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. (nil/sda/dpa)